Although the authors state in the first sentence of this slim book that their aim is “to provide an accurate and critical introduction to the current situation in El Salvador … ,” it is clear throughout the volume that the authors are really more interested in rallying opposition to United States policy in Central America. As they state in the second sentence of the book, “the U.S. government can only conduct [sic] an immoral foreign policy by keeping people in the dark.” Unfortunately, the book is neither accurate nor a critical introduction—unless by “critical” one means anti-United States.
Written by some eighteen persons (Students? It is unclear who they are.) and published by a “Central American Information Office” (CAMINO—an organization “dedicated to research and to dissemination of information about current problems in Central America”), the book is divided into fourteen chapters, with a text that is 114 pages in length, and has two appendixes, maps, and a glossary. No specific authors are identified with specific portions of the book, so the extent of collaboration among the authors is unclear.
Although in a few of the chapters the authors attempt to provide brief historical backgrounds, the focus is clearly contemporary. The source material used is heavily weighted toward recent journalism. The overall impression is one of very hasty research, driven by a collective desire to criticize United States support of the regime and the unexamined fear that El Salvador might become another Vietnam. The chapters, however, are too brief (the chapter on the Catholic church in El Salvador is four pages long) and summary to be of more than cursory value. The bibliography at the end of the book is extensive, but incomplete, with many important sources missing.
This book appears to have been written by students with incomplete academic training, to appeal to fellow students already in opposition to United States policy in El Salvador. There is little that is new or even well synthesized, and there are now several books that cover the same territory better (T. S. Montgomery, Marvin Cettleman et al., and Jaime Labastida et al.). This book should be read only by persons doing research on the anti-United States policy groups that emerged on El Salvador.
