To Martha Honey, "hostile acts" is shorthand for the nature of U.S. policies in Costa Rica during the last decade. In this book she combines extensive academic research with her firsthand experiences as a journalist covering major portions of the Iran-contra scandal to weave together the story of how the Reagan and Bush administrations undermined Central America's model democracy.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Freelance journalist Honey lived in Costa Rica from 1983 to 1991 and witnesed many of the events chronicled in this book. While maintaining a clear focus on the impact Costa Rica had on the Reagan administration's Central American policy, she does provide the full context of regional events during that turbulent decade. Holding that Costa Rica ought to be the "best example of the type of country the U.S. government says it is trying to foster," Honey documents how "Washington's misguided strategy" weakened and undermined Costa Rica until Costa Rican President Arias, in order to counter U.S. pressure, formulated the Central American Peace Plan, providing a regional solution to conflict and diminishing the role of the United States in the area. While a spate of books covering these events has appeared recently, Hostile Acts is unique in its emphasis on Costa Rica and in its carefully balanced prespectives. Recommended for all large public libraries and for all academic libraries.
- James Rhodes, Luther Coll., Decorah, Ia.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
- James Rhodes, Luther Coll., Decorah, Ia.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Book Description
"The definitive account of one of the sorriest chapters of U.S. foreign policy: the cynical efforts of the Reagan and Bush administrations and their Iran-contra operatives to undermine Costa Rica, Latin America's oldest democracy and arguably its most successful experiment in social well-being. Martha Honey's thoroughly documented book details how U.S. policymakers--obsessed with 'democratizing' Sandinista Nicaragua--deliberately employed covert action, short-sighted economic policies, and military pressure to undermine Costa Rica."--Marc Edelman, Yale University
To Martha Honey, "hostile acts" is shorthand for the nature of U.S. policies in Costa Rica during the last decade. In this book she combines extensive academic research with her firsthand experiences as a journalist covering major portions of the Iran-contra scandal to weave together the story of how the Reagan and Bush administrations undermined Central America's model democracy.
Until 1980 Washington paid little attention while Costa Rica quietly developed a benign, quasi-socialist form of government that combined respect for human rights with the goal of achieving economic equality. Then, Honey writes, the new Reagan administration decided that Costa Rica would be important in the war against the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. Over the next few years, the United States poured huge quantities of economic aid into the country and also covertly trained and equipped contra rebel forces to wage war against the Sandinistas from bases in northern Costa Rica.
Honey explores the interaction between politics and economic aid during the Reagan/Bush years, describing illegal military activities, payoffs to Costa Rican officials, misappropriation of funds, and President Oscar Arias's pursuit of his Central American Peace Plan in 1986. She recounts her life at the time with her husband, cameraman and journalist Tony Avirgan, writing that "it never occurred to us that by pursuing a journalistic investigation we would end up being accused of drug trafficking, of murder, of bribing witnesses, of espionage; that we would be twice sued for libel; that our media clients would be pressured to stop hiring us and our colleagues would be told we were Communist agents."
Honey's account ends in 1989, the year the Costa Rican government charged CIA operative John Hull with committing "hostile acts" for his involvement in contra operations.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Terrifically detailed,
By A Customer
This review is from: Hostile Acts: U.S. Policy in Costa Rica in the 1980s (Hardcover)
For such a scholarly book, the text is more accessible than one might think. I had to read it for a class on the CIA in college, and enjoyed the hell out of it!Just a note, I have also traveled to Costa Rica , and one of the VERY few guidebooks to touch on this period of Costa Rica and it's impact today is "Costa Rica: The Last Country The Gods Made." Written in 1994, it sort of takes up where Honey left off.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good...,
This review is from: Hostile Acts: U.S. Policy in Costa Rica in the 1980s (Paperback)
It was extremely detailed, I mean EXTREMELY detailed. It covered maybe six or seven actual events in a good 560-some pages. It had a wellspring of good information, and a wellspring of really unnecessary information. It was longer than it should have been.
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