[PDF] The Salvador Option eBook

Author : Russell Crandall
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 719 pages
File Size : 32,93 MB
Release : 2016-05-23
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 1316483436

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El Salvador's civil war between the Salvadoran government and Marxist guerrillas erupted into full force in early 1981 and endured for eleven bloody years. Unwilling to tolerate an advance of Soviet and Cuban-backed communism in its geopolitical backyard, the US provided over six billion dollars in military and economic aid to the Salvadoran government. El Salvador was a deeply controversial issue in American society and divided Congress and the public into left and right. Relying on thousands of archival documents as well as interviews with participants on both sides of the war, The Salvador Option offers a thorough and fair-minded interpretation of the available evidence. If success is defined narrowly, there is little question that the Salvador Option achieved its Cold War strategic objectives of checking communism. Much more difficult, however, is to determine what human price this 'success' entailed - a toll suffered almost entirely by Salvadorans in this brutal civil war.

Author : Elisabeth Jean Wood
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 332 pages
File Size : 10,18 MB
Release : 2003-08-04
Category : History
ISBN : 9780521010504

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Table of contents

Author : Brian D'Haeseleer
Publisher : University Press of Kansas
Page : 270 pages
File Size : 33,90 MB
Release : 2017-12-15
Category : History
ISBN : 0700625127

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In 1979, with El Salvador growing ever more unstable and ripe for revolution, the United States undertook a counterinsurgency intervention that over the following decade would become Washington’s largest nation-building effort since Vietnam. In 2003, policymakers looked to this “successful” undertaking as a model for US intervention in Iraq. In fact, Brian D’Haeseleer argues in The Salvadoran Crucible, the US counterinsurgency in El Salvador produced no more than a stalemate, and in the process inflicted tremendous suffering on Salvadorans for a limited amount of foreign policy gains. D’Haeseleer’s book is a deeply informed, dispassionate account of how the Salvadoran venture took shape, what it actually accomplished, and what lessons it holds. A historical analysis of the origins of US counterinsurgency policy provides context for understanding how precedents informed US intervention in El Salvador. What follows is a detailed, in-depth view of how the counterinsurgency unfolded—the nature, logic, and effectiveness of the policies, initiatives, and operations promoted by American strategists. D’Haeseleer’s account disputes the “success” narrative by showing that El Salvador’s achievements, mainly the spread of democracy, occurred as a result not of the American intervention but of the insurgents’ war against the state. Most significantly, The Salvadoran Crucible contends that the reforms enacted during the war failed to address the underlying causes of the conflict, which today continue to reverberate in El Salvador. The book thus suggests a reassessment of the history of American counterinsurgency, and a course-correction for the future.

Author : Benjamin C. Schwarz
Publisher :
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 19,76 MB
Release : 1991
Category : History
ISBN :

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This report assesses the political and social dimensions of American counterinsurgency policy in El Salvador. It attempts to explain why low-intensity-conflict doctrine has not produced the desired results and to reassess that doctrine's future utility. The author's appraisal of U.S. involvement in El Salvador leads him to conclude that there is a vast disparity between U.S. objectives and achievements there. For a decade, U.S. policy toward El Salvador tried to synthesize liberal and conservative aims: foster political, social, and economic reform, and provide security to a country whose freedom from communism the United States deemed essential. In attempting to reconcile these objectives, however, the United States pursued a policy that used means unsettling to itself, for ends humiliating to the Salvadorans, and at a cost disproportionate to any conventional conception of the national interest.

Author :
Publisher :
Page : 16 pages
File Size : 16,41 MB
Release : 1990
Category :
ISBN :

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The El Salvador conflict is nearing its 10th anniversary without any clear indication that the end is in sight. El Salvador is the focal point of U.S. policy in Central America and has become a test case of the nation's will and ability to influence political and military events in the region. U.S. intervention in El Salvador is a product of the broader conflict in Central America, which was initiated by the "fall" of Nicaragua to the Sandinistas in 1979. The Reagan Administration's decision to draw the line in El Salvador was intended as a signal that the United States would not "lose" another country in Central America. El Salvador became the test case because, in 1980, it appeared to be the next in line for Marxist takeover as the FMLN/FDR geared up for the "final offensive" in 1981. It is arguable that without U.S. assistance, El Salvador would have fallen to the FMLN insurgents. U.S. influence and assistance have been instrumental in organizing six fair and open national elections in El Salvador since 1980, including two at the presidential level. In that sense, the United States has succeeded in implementing its policy of promoting democratic reform. But the war continues, as evidenced by the FMLN's move into San Salvador late last year, and the ESAF continues to battle both its enemy and its image, as evidenced by the murder of six priests in response to the FMLN action. The stalemate is now passing the 5-year mark. The United States has spent more than 3 billion dollars over the past 10 years to promote democracy and respect for human rights in El Salvador and to fight the FMLN. Given the amount of aid and the noble cause, what went wrong? Perhaps it is fairer to ask, "What did not go right?" Before trying to answer this question, the author reviews the history of relations between the United States and Central America.

Author : Erik Ching
Publisher : UNC Press Books
Page : 363 pages
File Size : 29,36 MB
Release : 2016-08-26
Category : History
ISBN : 1469628678

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El Salvador's civil war began in 1980 and ended twelve bloody years later. It saw extreme violence on both sides, including the terrorizing and targeting of civilians by death squads, recruitment of child soldiers, and the death and disappearance of more than 75,000 people. Examining El Salvador's vibrant life-story literature written in the aftermath of this terrible conflict--including memoirs and testimonials--Erik Ching seeks to understand how the war has come to be remembered and rebattled by Salvadorans and what that means for their society today. Ching identifies four memory communities that dominate national postwar views: civilian elites, military officers, guerrilla commanders, and working class and poor testimonialists. Pushing distinct and divergent stories, these groups are today engaged in what Ching terms a "narrative battle" for control over the memory of the war. Their ongoing publications in the marketplace of ideas tend to direct Salvadorans' attempts to negotiate the war's meaning and legacy, and Ching suggests that a more open, coordinated reconciliation process is needed in this postconflict society. In the meantime, El Salvador, fractured by conflicting interpretations of its national trauma, is hindered in dealing with the immediate problems posed by the nexus of neoliberalism, gang violence, and outmigration.

Author : Gustavo Perdomo
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 218 pages
File Size : 27,87 MB
Release : 1995-05-23
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0313022011

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This book examines the military organization, strategy, and tactics of the Salvadoran FMLN guerrillas during their efforts to overthrow the government. It is largely based on the authors' personal collections of guerrilla documents captured in the war, interviews with former and captured guerrillas, and personal combat experience during one of the fiercest wars fought in the Western hemisphere in the 20th century. The book describes the guerrilla tactics from a technical point of view, and their evolution during the war in El Salvador. It includes discussions of such tactical concepts as concentration and deconcentration, urban combat, anti-air defense, the use of mines, and homemade weapons. It contains a chapter on the FMLN special forces—they were responsible for most of the spectacular attacks of the war—and it examines the sophisticated logistical system of the FMLN that made the prolonged war possible. Wherever possible, these concepts are illustrated by actual combat experiences from sources on both sides of the conflict. An important text for all concerned with guerrilla warfare and counterinsurgency. Latin Americanists and students of the developing world will also find much of interest.