Weakness and Deceit - US Policy and El Salvador [Hardcover]

Raymond Bonner (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 408 pages
• Publisher: Hamish Hamilton (1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 024111392X
• ISBN-13: 978-0241113929
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,008,234 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

A lawyer-turned-journalist, Bonner has demonstrated a remarkable inability to settle, having held numerous jobs (in law and journalism, lived on every continent (except Antarctica)and reported on coups, revolutions, wars, terrorist attacks, nature attacks (tsunami) from some hundred countries. He has received numerous awards and honors, including a shared Pulitzer and the Louis M. Lyon award for Conscience and Integrity in journalism from the Nieman Fellows at Harvard. He is the author of four books -- "Weakness and Deceit: U.S. Policy and El Salvador" (which received the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award); "Waltzing With a Dictator: The Marcoses and the Making of American Policy" (Sidney Hillman book award); and "At The Hand of Man: Peril and Hope for Africa's Wildlife." His most recent book is "Anatomy of Injustice: A Murder Case Gone Wrong," a riveting story of an innocent man condemned to death and his lawyer's efforts to save him, which probes the American justice system.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A real eye-opener, January 7, 2000

By 

A Customer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Weakness & Deceit: U.S. Policy and El Salvador (Hardcover)

I couldn't put this book down. Bonner has identified the major players in US-El Salvador relations in that time period and done an excellent job of contrasting the "party line" (the propoganda from the State Department and much of the press) from what he saw on the "front line" while living in El Salvador as a reporter for the NY Times. This book is not for the week of stomach, as it very graphically describes the fates of many people who died in the struggle. He has done an incredible job of organizing declassified documents and press clippings to show how the American public was deceived.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A memorable book, January 28, 2002

By 

Gary - See all my reviews

This review is from: Weakness & Deceit: U.S. Policy and El Salvador (Hardcover)

US foreign policy was neatly summed up by a commentator on 'Newsnight' recently. A country is like a game of poker in which you play a hand and then cut your losses and get out if things don't work out while the European stance is arguably more socialistic. Little seems to have changed then, judging by this horrifying book, burning with indignation by Raymond Bonner.
The Reagan administration has been deemed culpable by some over Central American injustice, but the 'weakness' of the title applies as much to the decisions made by the Carter administration, despite avowedly making human rights the 'soul of our foreign policy.' America could not conceive of any popular revolution as not instigated by the Soviet Union. Ironic then, that this book should show the importance of religion, not as a take it or leave it life style choice of the privileged west, but as a vital cohesive force against the forces of Nazi tyranny, which this undoubtably was. It is still inexplicable to me that a nation could make such an enormous sacrifice in fighting Facism during the war, only to come to this deplorable conclusion. Do the ends justify the means? Mr Bonner leaves us in no doubt.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great informative read, January 18, 2011

By 

Peter D. Bellone - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Weakness & Deceit: U.S. Policy and El Salvador (Hardcover)

This book is informative and readable. If you are interested in the salvadorean civil war you will add to your knowledge with this book.