The Immaculate InvasionBob Shacochis has been praised as a "stunning" writer who "summons the spirits of America and the Third World" ( "New York Newsday" ). Now, he brings to his first major work of reportage the worldview and political vision that have earned him comparisons with Graham Greene and V. S. Naipaul. Here is his eyewitness account of the 1994 invasion and occupation of Haiti, of American soldiers deployed into a strange war zone, "where there are no friends and no enemies, no front or rear, no victories and, likewise, no defeats, and no true endings." From the Pentagon's war room to the bitter infighting in the dangerously divided U.S. embassy in Port-au-Prince and its on again/off again relationship with terrorists, Shacochis chronicles what the military calls OTW Operations — other than war. Most enduring, from his eighteen months in the field in Haiti where he lived with a team of Special Forces commandos, Shacochis brings us the stories of soldiers, their exploits and frustrations, their inner lives as well as their heroic deeds, as they struggle to bring democracy to a country ravaged by tyranny. Not since Michael Herr's Dispatches has an American author of this stature written such a ground-eye view of soldiering, as intimate and telling as Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried." |
Contents
The Day You See Me Fall Is Not the Day I | 1 |
Repression Works | 12 |
Cowboy Heaven | 25 |
Copyright | |
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A-teams American soldiers Aristide Aristide's army asked attachés began Belladere Bob Fox Borgne Bossman Boyatt Bragg Cap Haïtien Captain Barton Captain Mike casern Cédras command compound cops crowd dechoukaj democracy embassy Ernie eyes FADH fire FRAPH front fucking Gary gate going Gonaïves Green Berets grenades guys Haiti Haitian hand happened Harlan County head headquarters Humvee imaginary colonel inside intel IPSF Jacmel Jean Moulin journalists kids killed knew Lavalas Lieutenant Colonel Limbé looked macoutes Marc Lamour Marines marketplace Meade military Miller mission morning murder never night officer Oloffson operation Operation Uphold Democracy palace patrol Pétionville police Port-au-Prince Potter psy ops radio Richard road Rockwood Schroer seemed Sergeant shit shoot someone Special Forces Stefanchik stopped street Susan talk tell Tenth Mountain thing thought told Top Miatke town troops trying turned vodou walked wall Walt wanted watched weapons