THE SANDINO AFFAIR
Neill Macaulay
VG/VG. (Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1967). Jacket in mylar. 16 pages of photographs,
endpaper maps, 10 battle maps, notes, bibliographical essay, index, 319 pages."
"Out of the jungles of Nicaragua came the spiritual forerunner of Fidel Castro -- a bold, dynamic crusader bent on stemming
the tide of 'Yankee Imperialism' in Latin America. His name was Augusto Sandino, the first guerrilla leader America was to face in the twentieth century.
~~~ For six years, from 1927 to 1933, General Sandino masterfully eluded and baffled the United States Marines who had intervened in a country torn by political
strife. In the end he suffered tragic betrayal and death, but he became one of Latin America's favorite heroes. Even today Sandinismo is a living idea in almost
every country south of the Rio Grande. ~~~ Curiously, Sandino was developing his guerrilla tactics at precisely the same time Mao Tse-tung was working out similar techniques
thousands of miles away. The Sandino story bristles with battle. Such famous American generals as 'Chesty' Puller and Matthew B. Ridgway 'cut their teeth'
in Nicaragua and developed some imaginative counter-thrusts to bush warfare. But they and political leaders like Henry L. Stimson, John Foster Dulles, and McGeorge Bundy were later to forget the sad facts of
counter-insurgency warfare. ~~~ This is the story of a cause that failed and, above all, a political lesson for our times -- a lesson we never seem to learn."
The author, Neill Macaulay, served as a staff officer and commanded a heavy weapons platoon in the Cuban
Rebel Army of Fidel Castro, and now teaches history at the University of Florida. He was educated at
The Citadel, the University of South Carolina, and the University of Texas (where he received his Ph.D.),
and has since been a Ford Foundation Fellow.
Bernard B. Fall, author of The Two Vietnams, Street Without Joy, Vietnam Witness, and Hell in
a Very Small Place, writes: "At a time when the United States may well be committing herself to 'pacification' campaigns from Vietnam and Thailand to Santo Domingo, Macaulay's book is an important contribution to our still scant knowledge of the whole subject. As an example of how a six-year-long camopaign by U.S. Marines can be militarily successful and at the same time be a total political failure
whose adverse consequences still haunt the U.S. in Central America forty years later, The Sandino Affair has no equal in its field. ~~~
It would perhaps be too much to hope when I say that the book should be read by American policy-makers as a stark reminder of past mistakes which are still being repeated down to the minutest details, as well as a valuable guide on how to liquidate a guerilla war."
Originally published at $6.95, now
OUT OF PRINT.
$35.00
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