Contra Cross

A journey through the Central American wars of the 1980s as seen through the eyes of a young American officer who worked on both sides of insurgency in the region: In El Salvador Bill Meara supported efforts to defeat insurgents; with Nicaraguans he worked to keep an insurgency alive. One of very few Americans to see both sides up close, he takes readers into his world as an advisor struggling with cultural differences and human rights violations while trying to stay alive in murderous El Salvador. We join him on dangerous helicopter rides into contra base camps on the Honduran-Nicaraguan border and into a U.S. Embassy under attack. From Special Forces school at Ft. Bragg to Joan Baez’s back-stage party in Managua to a contra POW camp deep in the jungle, we get a taste of Meara’s world up close.