Study of political aspects of the armed forces in Latin America and the role thereof in countering the threat of insurgency through civic service - covers the role of USA, training programmes, administrative aspects, etc. Historical data and papers pp. 267 to 306, references at the end of chapters, and bibliography pp. 309 to 327.

In 2005, Dr. Manwaring wrote a monograph entitled Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, Bolivarian Socialism, and Asymmetric Warfare. It came at a time when the United States and Venezuela were accelerating a verbal sparing match regarding which country was destabilizing Latin America more. President Chavez shows no sign of standing down; he slowly and deliberately centralizes his power in Venezuela, and carefully and adroitly articulates his Bolivarian dream (the idea of a Latin American Liberation Movement against U.S. economic and political imperialism). Yet, most North Americans dismiss Chavez as a "nut case," or--even if he is a threat to the security and stability of the Hemisphere--the possibilities of that threat coming to fruition are too far into the future to worry about. Dr. Manwaring's intent is to explain in greater depth what President Chavez is doing and how he is doing it. First, he explains that Hugo Chavez's threat is straightforward, and that it is being translated into a consistent, subtle, ambiguous, and ambitious struggle for power that is beginning to insinuate itself into political life in much of the Western Hemisphere. Second, he shows how President Chavez is encouraging his Venezuelan and other followers to pursue a confrontational, populist, and nationalistic agenda that will be achieved only by (1) radically changing the traditional politics of the Venezuelan state--and other Latin American states--to that of "direct" (totalitarian) democracy; (2) destroying North American hegemony throughout all of Latin America by conducting an irregular Fourth-Generation War "Super Insurgency"; and, (3) country-by-country, building a great new Bolivarian state out of a phased Program for the Liberation of Latin America.

In Crossroads of Intervention, Todd Greentree argues that there are many valuable lessons to be learned about the nature of irregular warfare from the experiences of the United States in Central America during the final decade of the Cold War. This first comprehensive Strategy and policy analysis of U.S. intervention in Central America examines the origins, dynamics, and termination of the Sandinista insurrection in Nicaragua, the Salvadoran government's decade-long Conuterinsurgency against the FMLN, and the Contra insurgency against the Sandinistas. Greentree establishes the historical, political, and conceptual relationship between U.S. involvement in the Central American, wars, the Vietnam War and the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, while laying the foundation for an expanded understanding of the fundamental and recurring nature of insurgency, and intervention. U.S. involvement in Central America during the 1280s clearly demonstrates the costs, risks, and limits of intervention and the use of force in internal conflicts. The consequences of such involvement, he warns, must not be forgotten. Hispanic Heritage Month Reading List.