5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Foot Soldier in Central America, January 28, 2007
This review is from: Contra Cross: Insurgency and Tyranny in Central America, 1979-1989 (Hardcover)
It is often quipped that the mark of a brilliant man is that he agrees with what you believe; I read Bill Meara's book Contra Cross yesterday and I would use the words brilliant and brilliantly delivered to describe it.
Let me back up in time a bit. In 1988 just back from UN duty in Lebanon and Egypt I sat down in my 15-man section at CGSC and we did the "where I have been and what I have been doing" confessional. My section leader looked at me and quipped, "you have not been in the Army." I simply asked him and the larger group, "Have any of you been shot at lately?" No one answered. Later the same guy in discussing low intensity conflict remarked, "I cannot see anyway the US Army will ever get involved in a counter-insurgency again after what happend in Vietnam." I asked him what exactly he thought was going on in Central America at the very moment. He suggested that what was happening was not really the US Army. Six years later I greeted that same individual as he arrived in Goma with a water truck task force. He had a stunned look on his face. I said, "Welcome to my world."
Contra Cross is about Bill Meara's world, one like and at once unlike my own. The book is from the foot soldier's perspective and it offers unique insights on the wars in Nicaragua and El Salvador. Bill was a Special Forces officer trained in psychological operations and as a regional specialist. He served in uniform with the Military Advisory Group in El Salvador and later as a Foreign Service Officer as liaison to the Contras from Honduras. Like any good read, Bill's book offers key themes and messages, weaving them through the pages, repeatedly exposing the reader to them in the hopes they will imprint. I will list some here:
Culture and Cultural Understanding is Critical
Language is Fundamental
COIN and Guerrilla Warfare Target the Minds of the Population, Not the Enemy
The Greatest Cultural Gap is Between DC and the Field
The Unconventional Warrior is Indeed From Venus and the Conventional Warrior Refuses to Visit From Mars
I tell every Soldier that I coach, teach, and mentor that I have two fundamental rules for cross cultural understanding:
They do not think like you do
They have an agenda in every interaction with you
Bill's narrative hammers home the first point and his story reinforces the second. His self-reflection on his role as an US government representative while serving as liaison to the Contras is one of the book's greatest strengths.
I would recommend this book to all from Strategic Corporal to the White House. I only wish that it had come out earlier.
Great job, Bill!
Sincerely,
Tom Odom
Author Journey Into Darkeness: Genocide in Rwanda
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
From retired CIA officer Duane Clarridge, February 12, 2007
This review is from: Contra Cross: Insurgency and Tyranny in Central America, 1979-1989 (Hardcover)
"In 1949, Alexander Foote wrote a small book, "A Handbook for Spies" which contains all one needs to know to conduct espionage. Now comes another small volume, "Contra Cross", by William Meara which contains much of what one needs to understand to counter or for that matter support an insurgency. Based on his experience in El Salvador and with the Contras in Honduras/Nicaragua during the 1980's, Meara provides a crisp, thoughtful exposition of the problems and requirements for the winning of such conflicts. Meara's thoughts and experiences are well worth pondering as our nation takes on its current adversaries."
Duane Clarridge - Thirty-three year veteran of the CIA's clandestine service, Chief of CIA Latin American Division 1981-84, conceiver and chief of CIA Counterterrorism Center 1986-88, author of " The Spy for All Seasons."
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
More Evidence That We Don't Get It!, June 22, 2006
This review is from: Contra Cross: Insurgency and Tyranny in Central America, 1979-1989 (Hardcover)
William R. Meara's book *Contra Cross* is another piece of well-researched and written evidence that describes why the U.S. does not do well at insurgency or 4th Generation Warfare today. His book deals with his missions in Central America in the 1980s and 1990s. Bill has served in the Special Forces as well as the Department of State, so he is well qualified to make such frank assessments.
Before I go on further, I must point out that there are instances that our nation knew how to conduct insurgency warfare--Our own Revolutionary War, the Marines in Central America and the Caribean nations in the 20s and 30s, and the Army in the Phillipines at the turn of the 20th Century.
Bill Meara does it right because he was there, he lived it, made it work, knew the ground, people and the culture. Today, the Army likes using the Lawrence of Arabia analogy in seeking its future warrior leaders, another powerful, but shallow message on power point briefings without wanting to understand the total cultural implications that must occur to create such leaders.
What made people like Lawrence successful? Trust. The attainment of trust came from an incredible amount of education and self examination, which produced learning enabling Lawrence to become an expert on the Arab culture, while retaining his ties to his country of orgin, Great Britain. There was also a tolerence for the eccentric, which Lawrence was, more so than the paper cutter all-American physical and handsome looking types we nurture today.
Lawrence was able to self educate, then empowered by his government to go and perform a broad mission, which he defined further based on his knowledge of the culture. Meara on the other hand, operating in the Industrial and Bureaucratic age of the Army, was constantly having to fight his own organization in order to get the resources, time and people to do his job. Despite these obstacles, which were put in place to control people and prevent the incompetent from making mistakes, Meara accomplished a lot in local areas, but overarching policies and cultural beliefs diminished his efforts.
But most importantly, Meara had the moral courage not to quit, and continue the fight in another bureaucratic organization, the State Department. This displays another trait with Lawrence, and what it will take to win the wars of the future, aspiration for true professionalism, which is autonomy and enlightenment, driven by strength of character.
Both of these individuals did (do) not need rules, regulations and laws, and layers of supervisors to do their jobs, better defined as missions with the individual tasked for the mission to define the details. As Meara points out, the Industrial Age personnel system of the Army (as well as the military and government) attempts to cast everyone as a spare part, where one can replace the other. In an attempt in doing so, our nation in effect dumb downs everything, while driving out most of the talented people we need who seek the responsibility and challenges combating 4th Generation Warfare.
Hopefully, soon, Bill Meara's book will be considered as part of a critical analysis of lessons learned that the future Army, as well as the nation learned from, made adjustments to current organizations, and will win the wars of the future.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
