El Salvador: Dance of the Death Squads, 1980–1992 (Cold War, 1945–1991)

The books of this Cold War Series (1945-1991) are generally concise, well written and very well researched. They address both major and obscure conflicts of the period and provide a good, unbiased narrative. This particular book, however, is an exception. It is formatted totally different from the other books in the series, and is more of a first person account of the author’s participation in this war. With a few exceptions, this book is basically the story of soldier of fortune “Billy Bob” and his merry band of part time mercs romping through this Civil War during the late 1980s. However, there are two positive aspects that I do like about this book. First, the author provides a good background of what led to the Civil War in El Salvador and why the superpowers were involved. He explains in clear terms why this conflict was important to the United States and equally important to the Communists – the Cubans, the Sandinistas and the Soviet Union. Initially viewed as easy pickings, the Communists were quick to capitalize on their success in overthrowing the Nicaraguan Government. They leveraged the weakness of the Carter Administration to ferment trouble in El Salvador and Guatemala. However, that changed when the Reagan Administration came into office. Alarmed at the growing militarization of the region by the Soviets and the Sandinistas, the Administration moved fast to counter their efforts. Second, the author provides one of the few good and accurate explanations of the genesis of US military support for El Salvador and explains why we established the USMILGROUP that oversaw the advisory effort. He outlines the initial organization and responsibilities of the MILGROUP. Working directly under the US Embassy and separate from the Defense Attaché, this effort led to a total transformation of the El Salvador Armed Forces (ESAF) from a bunch of undisciplined, savage killers to a disciplined, effective and efficient Armed Forces that fought the Communists on their terms and brought them to a standstill. To this day, there remains the mistaken impression that the war was won by only 55 US Advisors. That is a total falsehood. The number 55 was not anything that was cemented by law or by operational need, but was an arbitrary number the Reagan Administration and Congress agreed on in order to get the military aid approved. The 55 American soldiers and Marines were assigned to and directly advised the ground combat elements of the ESAF - their Army and Marines. However, the truth is there were in excess of 400-500 US military personnel in-country supporting the war effort by the time I arrived in 1991. They included advisors to the Navy and Air Force, advisors to the combat support and service support elements of the ESAF – logistical, medical, ordnance and maintenance – and advisors to the National level military leadership and the General Staff. There were also many US Army Special Forces “A” Teams and US Navy SEAL Teams that rotated in-country for 60-90 day MTT tours that did not count against the 55. Then there were the US Army Aviation teams, the Intelligence teams, PSYOPs and Civil Military teams that directly supported the advisory effort. This did not count the CIA, their contractors and other organizations that were also in the fight. None of them counted against the 55, but we 55 could not have been successful without their efforts. The author illustrates this book with some of the best photos from the era. His photos of an embattled country with sandbagged strong points, destroyed infrastructure and roving military patrols accurately portray what is was like during the war. His photos of the opposition are stark and accurate. There are excellent photos that cover other, less well covered subjects from that war – the ESAF Naval riverine and coastal forces and the Air Force. But on the other hand, the author sprinkles many photos of more recent US military activities in the country that could cause confusion with the reader in differentiating wartime photos from the present. I thought it was inappropriate to include those photos without relating them to the war. There are very few honest, unbiased books and materials about the Civil War in El Salvador. Despite its flaws and short comings, I think this book is worth the read. It’s hard hitting and tells it like it was. A hot button political issue back in the 1970s and 1980s, the war has now been long forgotten except by those of us who served and fought there. The only people who seem to remain interested are the left wing supporters of the Communists and the liberal and biased media who are eager to perpetuate the impression that US policy of the era was just an extension of Vietnam and was all about killing priests, torture, death squads and waging an immoral war against the common people. The conflicts in Central America of the 1980s were far more complex than that with their genesis dating back to the 1920s. No doubt, the guerilla movements in the region were the result of repression, injustice and economic inequities of the ruling governments and the elites that supported them. I believe the guerillas and the people who supported them had good reason to rebel. However, forcing change at the point of an AK to impose another political system that was just as repressive was not the answer. The American left will have you believe the Communist FMLN had prevailed and won the war. They will not acknowledge that the real legacy of the war, and of the American success there, is that hand-in-hand with a military solution the Reagan and Bush Administrations forced real political and social change on El Salvador. It did not go back to business as usual as soon as the peace was won. The Administrations forced real democratic reform that included the leftist and communist elements in the political process. The communists would not have agreed to that if they had been winning. Today, the FMLN is the ruling party, yet they are strong allies and supporters of the United States. That in itself should tell you something about what our efforts produced there. As the post war process of winning the peace moved forward in 1992, the Bush Administration announced that they were drawing down the US military presence there. The Salvadoran Government, their military and the UN all agreed. Only the Communist FMLN objected. Their reason was that the American military was the only honest organization left in the country that they could trust.

I was in El Salvador for two years during the war, every bit of this book reflects much of what I experienced first hand. The contemporary instability and violence in El Salvador is directly linked to the legacy of Reagans Iran-Contra. It became extremely difficult to determine who the good guys were, El Salvador would be one of several life changing experiences for me. The poverty and suffering were extreme, this book does an excellent job of capturing that scene. There are plenty of poignant photographs, sometimes pictures can say what words cant. I would recommend this book to anyone, this is an already forgotten part of US history as much as it is El Salvadorian history. It provides the number one reason why people flee their homeland seeking safety to the north.

Poorly researched; numerous inaccuracies; Glaring oversights to include the U.S. military involvement in El Salvador having been authorized by Congress in 1996 as a U.S. military campaign. Where Venters writings are otherwise consistently well done this book is a dismal low point for him and might better have been written as a war correspondent for Soldier of Fortune magazine given his long association with that publication and its staff. Pass.

Much of the book is comprised of a concise view of the authors time in El Salvador along with some personal histories of the American soldiers of fortune who helped the El Salvadoran forces out, by either flying their aircraft or training their special ops groups. The author touched briefly on the history of the conflict and the American and local governments political views attempts to stem the Russian/Cuban influence in the area. The book is easy to read, Al tells the stories of Dana Drenkowski, a VietNam veteran who came into the conflict flying helicopters and ground attack jets in support of the government forces, and Harry Chaflin, a 2 tour Nam veteran who had served with Force Recon before being wounded. Harry would end up outside of Military Assistance Commands influence and would perform yeomans service by establishing the Grupo de Operaciones as well as working with the Airborne units in El Salvador. of the authors first hand stories of his time in El Salvador going on patrol or interdicting arms smugglers and of Col. Robert Browns ( Soldier of Fortune magazine) group who were also in-country training the government forces.