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244 SAIS REVIEW ills they perceive, while conservatives see every criticism of U.S. foreign policy as an unpatriotic act or a weakening of resolve. With the Contras: A Reporter in the Wilds of Nicaragua. By Christopher Dickey. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985. 327 pp. $18.95/cloth. Reviewed by Lawrence T. DiRita, M.A. Candidate, SAIS. Given the current interest in the so-called Contras of Nicaragua, one begins reading Christopher Dickey's With the Contras with several reasonable expectations . Judging from the title, one anticipates a book researched while on patrol in the wilds of Nicaragua getting to know the subjects first hand, learning their backgrounds, motivations, and beliefs. Upon learning that Dickey spent three years as the Washington Post's bureau chief in Central America, one expects a serious journalistic effort, factually accurate and well documented. And because Dickey's book is the first comprehensive examination of this much-discussed group, one assumes that when the reader finishes the book, he will have a broader understanding of the Contras as an organization— if indeed they are one — and of their chances for success — if they have any. Sadly, these expectations are largely unfulfilled. The book is more of a suspense novel than a serious look at these leading players actors in the current dispute over U.S. Central American policy. This is not to say that there is no substance in With the Contras, only that the important points the book makes are lost in Dickey's slick prose. One cannot help but be impressed at the pains the author takes to document sources. Eschewing footnotes, Dickey includes forty-two pages of endnotes which provide background on nearly every quote, impression, or statement he uses. Such fastidiousness is vital for a book in which the facts presented are often impossible to verify. But several glaring factual errors call his accuracy into question. For example, General Edwin Meyer, Army Chief of Staff during a certain period of the book, is identified as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (page 123). Later, Dickey writes that Edgar Chamorro, an early member of the Nicaraguan Democratic Forces' Directorate, "was on his way to becoming a priest" for twenty years "without ever quite making a wholehearted commitment " (page 157). This may surprise Chamorro, who was an ordained Jesuit priest until he left the order in 1969. The most serious misrepresentation, however, is one Dickey likely had no control over— the book's title. It does not take long for the reader to realize that Dickey actually passed very little time "in the wilds of Nicaragua." It seems that Dickey spent approximately one week out on patrol with one company of guerrillas. Indeed, the section of the book that describes his brief foray into Nueva Segovia Province is scarcely 30 pages long compared to over 250 pages of material based on interviews conducted largely in Tegucigalpa, San Salvador, Miami, and Washington. BOOK REVIEWS 245 Despite the brief span of time Dickey actually spent in the field, the view he presents of the troops is one of desperate, bitter, and ruthless commanders leading confused and questionably loyal campesinos who join the force more out of fear than out of conviction. He also presents irrefutable proof of the large CIA involvement in the funding, training, and organization of the Contras from 1981 to 1983, roughly the period covered by the book. One cannot help but admire Dickey's bravery in crossing the Honduran border into hostile territory. But what the American people need, if they are to make sense of the acrimonious debate between those who favor aiding the rebels and those who oppose such aid, are facts, not journalistic derring-do. With a writing style which Louis L'Amour might envy, Dickey has produced a quick, enjoyable read. But it is a triumph of style over substance, too facile to cut through the rhetoric which has defined the limits of the most important U.S. foreign policy debate of this decade. Citizens and Soldiers: The Dilemmas of Military Service. By Eliot A. Cohen. Ithaca, N. Y.: Cornell University Press, 1985. 227 pp. $22.50/cloth. The Rise and Fall ofAn American...

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