Our Own Backyard: The United States in Central America, 1977-1992

In this remarkable and engaging book, William LeoGrande offers the first comprehensive history of U.S. foreign policy toward Central America in the waning years of the Cold War. From the overthrow of the Somoza dynasty in Nicaragua and the outbreak of El Salvador’s civil war in the late 1970s to the final regional peace settlements negotiated a decade later, he chronicles the dramatic struggles — in Washington and Central America — that shaped the region’s destiny.
For good or ill, LeoGrande...