Comandos: The CIA and Nicaragua's Contra Rebels

Dillon, a reporter for the Miami Herald , offers the first comprehensive examination of the civil war in Nicaragua from the Contra side. He focuses largely on the work of Luis Fley, the Contras' chief legal investigator who, uncovering tortures, rapes and murders committed by the Contra commanders against their own peasant troops, brought the criminals before a tribunal. Dillon analyzes the rivalry among U.S. agencies for control of the Contras--the CIA, the State Department, the Pentagon, the Agency for International Development and the National Security Council all had a crack at it--and shows how Lt. Col. Oliver North secretly aided and advised the Contra army during the U.S. military-aid cutoff from 1984 to 1986. The book provides a fresh look at the occasion of the most controversial U.S. foreign policy since Vietnam, an immensely complicated struggle in which some 30,000 died. (Oct.)