IPD: The Unknown Congolese Heroes – Book Review: ‘Spies in the Congo: America’s Atomic Mission in World War II’

"The Unknown Congolese Heroes – Book Review: ‘Spies in the Congo: America’s Atomic Mission in World War II’"

Wilder Alejandro Sanchez and Yves Bashonga
Book Review & Analysis
24 August 2018
International Policy Digest

Spies in the Congo by Dr. Susan Williams discusses U.S. intelligence operations in the Belgian Congo (now the Democratic Republic of Congo: DRC), to secure uranium during World War II while also preventing Nazi Germany from obtaining said mineral for its own nuclear weapons program. This is a very well-written book that effectively narrates the activities that members of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS, the predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency) carried out in the Belgian Congo. Without a doubt, Williams’ book combines both a deep discussion about World War II geopolitics while also bringing these individuals, too many of whom died at a young age, to life.

Moreover, Spies in the Congo discusses the other unknown heroes of this massive operation, the people of the Congo itself, who suffered then and continue to suffer, because of the richness of their country.

An Ideal Movie Plot

What transpired in the Belgian Congo during World War II is a plot worthy of a movie or a Netflix miniseries. On 2 August 1939, Albert Einstein wrote a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, explaining that uranium reserves in the U.S. were very poor and in moderate quantities. He added that some good ore may be found in Canada and the former Czechoslovakia, while the most important source of uranium is in the Belgian Congo. As war in Europe was looming – Nazi Germany invaded Czechoslovakia in March of that year and invaded Poland only a month later following Einstein’s letter in September. As a consequence, it was important for the U.S. to push forward with its own nuclear program which required rich ore.

The book discusses in great detail the activities of OSS members in the Belgian Congo as they attempted to procure all uranium out of the Shinkolobwe mine in Katanga, and how it was transported from there to the coast: first to Lobito in Angola, a Portuguese colony at the time, and later through Matadi in the Congo and from there to the U.S. As the OSS members set up and monitored this massive operation, we learn more about them, as well as other individuals and entities that were involved in the uranium game: the sometimes unhelpful US consuls in the Congo, the British intelligence officers; Belgian officials, like the governor general of the Congo, the Belgian state police and intelligence agency Sûreté de l’État, which operated in the Congo; Belgian companies like Union Minière du Haut Katanga (which operated the Shinkolobwe mine) and Société Générale (which controlled the UMHK) not to mention the several often-unreliable individuals that the OSS had to work with. Everyone had his own interests and objectives.

Williams does an excellent job at explaining how Washington and the OSS in the Belgian Congo, successfully managed to keep its operations regarding the Shinkolobwe mine a secret, not to mention the overall objective of the Manhattan Project. The OSS team in the Belgian Congo, led by the book’s protagonist, Wilbur Owings “Dock” Hogue (Codename Teton), managed to successfully maintain a cover to combat the illegal diamond trade, rather than uranium. There was a constant fear that the Nazis would somehow figure out the US operations in the Belgian Congo and attempt to smuggle uranium via Nazi-friendly smugglers and Belgian officials. The Allies were also unclear about how developed Nazi Germany’s nuclear program was. In the end, to the Allies’ surprise, said program was not very developed at all.

Congolese uranium will be eventually used for the U.S. nuclear bombs (“Little Boy” and “Fat Man”) that were dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

Unknown Heroes
Thanks to declassified documents and other research, we know more about OSS operations in the Belgian Congo, as well as the divided interests of the Belgian government and business community both in Brussels and Léopoldville (now Kinshasa, the capital of the DRC). Some were determined to fight the Nazis, while others were sympathetic. There was also a faction that behaved pragmatically supporting whichever side was winning the war.

But what about the Congolese themselves? While Spies in the Congo focuses on the OSS and World War II, Williams does a great job telling us about the people who actually worked at the Shinkolobwe mine and helped win the war.

Williams is blunt about the treatment of the Congolese by the Belgians. Both before and during the war, they were exploited, and the eventual victory of the Allies did nothing to improve their conditions until the Belgian Congo’s eventual independence in 1960. She discusses the role of King Leopold II of Belgium, which transformed the territory into the Congo Free State in the 19th century.

Leopold’s harsh rule has been well examined, including the use of the infamous chicotte “which at the time was made from hippopotamus hide with razor-sharp edges,” to punish the Congolese. How many Congolese died during Leopold’s rule is anyone’s guess. Williams cites the number at 10 million “as result of the routine brutality and executions,” but other authors cite different numbers, also in the millions; hence the genocide during the Congo Free State should be more well-known than it is today. (For more information about Leopold’s rule and Congo, see Adam Hochschild’s King Leopold’s Ghost.)

During World War II, the Allies’ need for Africa’s raw resources, such as uranium, rubber, cotton among others, dramatically increased. Williams explains how “between 1938 and 1944, the Union Minière workforce almost doubled from 25,000 to 49,000; so did the number of fatal accidents at Union Minière plants.” Even more, Congolese soldiers were also conscripted into the Force Publique, the Belgian Colonial Army, which fought in Ethiopia (then Abyssinia), Nigeria, Egypt and Palestine. The 11th battalion of the Force Publique included 3,000 Congolese soldiers and 2,000 bearers who fought valiantly in Ethiopia.

Unsurprisingly, Congolese soldiers were badly treated by white officers, and they were told that, if they fled, their families would be punished. This mirrored the situation of the Congolese in the civilian world under Belgian rule, as they were treated as second class citizens, underpaid and segregated from white-neighborhoods in Leopoldville or Elisabethville (now Lubumbashi).

As a final point, it is important to highlight that the radioactivity of uranium does not care about skin color. Several OSS personnel would become sick and die at early ages, partially weakened by diseases like malaria, but their continuous exposure to uranium certainly did not help their health. The same can be said about the Congolese workers who worked at the Shinkolobwe mine without protective equipment. Williams correctly concludes that the Congolese “were simply used as workers, as if they had no rights as equal human beings. This was a process for which the US, the UK and Belgium bear a heavy responsibility.”

Analysis: Who Benefits from Congo’s riches?
In her conclusions, Dr. Williams discusses how, when Congo achieved independence, it attempted to remain neutral in the emerging Cold War, “but it was unavoidable: the Congo’s resources, including its uranium, put the newly independent nation at the very heart of Cold War concerns.”

This seems to be part of a pattern when it comes to the Congo; over the centuries, different outside actors have arrived to plunder and steal (for there is no other term to describe this process) its natural resources: during World War II, it was the U.S. to defeat the Nazi empire; today they are transnational companies, rebel movements, not to mention certain governments. Whether it is diamonds, uranium, copper, cobalt or coffee, it seems that the entire world benefits from the Congo, except for the Congolese themselves.

A lot has changed in the past 70 plus years since the end of the War: the DRC is now an independent nation, but Congolese villagers continue to work for transnational companies in atrocious circumstances, with said companies giving little back to local communities in exchange for what they extract.
In early June 2018, the DRC signed into law a revised version of the 2002 mining code, which will hopefully mean more tax revenue for the government from transnational companies that operate in the country. “The DRC does not have a strong history of obtaining taxes from the general population, so taxes from these companies are vital for our development,” explains one of the authors of this commentary. Unsurprisingly, this move has prompted criticism by mining companies like Glencore and Randgold, which argue that “the tax hikes and the removal of exemptions for pre-existing operations are a breach of their agreements with the government,” explains Reuters.

As for Congolese-Belgian relations, the legacy of the Congo Free State and the Belgian Congo remains in the minds of the Congolese who have learned their nation’s history, not to mention the role that the Belgian government played in the assassination of the Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba (a renowned supporter of Pan-Africanism) via Katangan separatists in 1961.

Brussels has recognized its role in Lumumba’s death: it apologized in 2002 and this past June it inaugurated the Patrice Lumumba square at the entrance to the Belgian capital’s largely Congolese Matonge area. In spite of the symbolic importance of this initiative, bilateral relations have continued to deteriorate and it will be important to monitor these to see if they improve in the future after the DRC’s upcoming elections, scheduled for December 2018.

Without a doubt, Spies in the Congo is a great book that tells a vital, though obscure story about World War II, namely the role the Congo had in helping the Allies win, and the U.S. development of its nuclear program in particular. Today Congo continues to supply the world with critically important resources, and sadly the vast majority of the Congolese people have yet to profit from them.

The views expressed in this article are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect those of any institutions with which the authors are associated.

Chapter: "2008: The Andean Great War"

"2008: The Andean Great War - How A South American Conflict Could Have Erupted in 2008"
W. Alejandro Sanchez
P. 729-734
Quaderno 2016 Future Wars
Societa Italiana di Storia Militare
Virgilio Ilari (ed).,
2016

PDF Available: https://archive.org/details/2016QuadernoSism2016FutureWars.PdfAColori

Blouin Beat: World - Will ‘Narcos’ stick to reality, mystery safe and all?

"Will 'Narcos' stick to reality, mystery safe and all?"
W. Alejandro Sanchez
Blouin Beat: World
February 1, 2016
Originally published: http://blogs.blouinnews.com/blouinbeatworld/2016/02/01/will-narcos-stick-to-reality-mystery-safe-and-all/

In addition to periodic coverage of geopolitics in Latin America, W. Alejandro Sanchez has previously reported on substance abuse in Netflix’s ‘Jessica Jones’ and whether cyber warfare is accurately depicted in the USA network’s ‘Mr. Robot.’ 

A

 metal safe has been discovered by workers demolishing a Miami mansion overlooking Biscayne Bay, which was owned by the late Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar. Given the existing mythology around the notorious criminal, we can expect significant speculation about the safe’s contents until it is opened.

Escobar’s life has been well documented. For example, Mark Bowden’s book Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World’s Greatest Outlaw, is a must-read for anyone interested in the late criminal. Additionally, Juan Pablo Escobar, the narco lord’s son, has published a biography entitled Pablo Escobar: Mi Padre (My Father), in which he labels his father as a “drug trafficker, terrorist and assassin.” Additionally, there are television and movie productions about Escobar. For example, a Colombian series was produced about his life, entitled ‘Pablo Escobar: El Patron del Mal’ (‘The Lord of Evil’), while Guillermo del Toro portrayed him in the 2015 film ‘Paradise Lost.’

Recently, Escobar became a household name in the U.S. due to ‘Narcos,’ a Netflix series that describes his life, his drug empire and the operations carried out by Colombian and U.S. security agencies to hunt him down. The series has generally remained true to history, though there are some exaggerations or adaptations of what really happened. Case in point: in one episode, Escobar and his bodyguards kill Ivan Marino Ospina (AKA “Ivan The Terrible”) a leader of the M-19 revolutionary movement. In reality, Ospina was killed by Colombian security forces.

Season 1 of ‘Narcos’ ended with Escobar fleeing the golden prison, known as “La Catedral,” that he had constructed for himself. The show’s popularity prompted it to be renewed for a second season, which will revolve around the Colombian and U.S. governments tracking Escobar down until his death on December 2, 1993. If ‘Narcos’ hews to history, Escobar will be shot on a rooftop in Medellin by members of a Colombian police unit known as Search Bloc, which was tasked with finding him. Then again, ‘Narcos’ may try to be vague about who killed Escobar, as there are theories that his murder was carried out by narco-paramilitaries (see the book This Is How We Killed The Boss), or maybe even U.S. Delta snipers (Bowden hints at this in Killing Pablo), while his son Juan Pablo argues that the drug lord killed himself to avoid being captured (and in all likelihood extradited to the U.S.).

It would be amusing if ‘Narcos’ decides to address the recently found safe. After fleeing La Catedral, Escobar remained in hiding and did not travel to Miami, but there could be a flashback scene of Escobar or one of his henchmen closing the safe one last time. The Miami Heraldexplains that Escobar bought the mansion in March 1980 for $762,500, and it was seized by the U.S. government in 1987 as Washington stepped up its fight against him.

At the time of this writing, the new owners of Escobar’s home have yet to open the 600 pound metal safe – inside there could be money, weapons, drugs or even documents that incriminate Miami businesses and individuals that were part of Escobar’s narco-empire. According to theBBC, “workers had already found one safe in the house shortly after demolition work began, but it disappeared before anyone could examine it,” which only adds to the mystery.

As ‘Narcos’ mentions at the beginning of the series, Colombia is the birthplace of the literary movement known as “realismo mágico,” magic realism, where magic and reality co-exist in harmony. When it comes to Pablo Escobar’s criminal life, there is certainly much “mágico” in his reality.

Blouin News: Drones on film: ‘Eye in the Sky’

"Drones on Film: 'Eye in the Sky'"
W. Alejandro Sanchez
Blouin News - Technology
February 22, 2016
Originally published: http://blouinnews.com/89471/story/drones-film-%E2%80%98eye-sky%E2%80%99

In addition to periodic coverage of geopolitics in Latin America, W. Alejandro Sanchez has previously reported on substance abuse in Netflix’s ‘Jessica Jones’ and whether cyber warfare is accurately depicted in the USA network's ‘Mr. Robot.’ 

A new film about the (lethal) usage of unmannered aerial vehicles (UAVs) will hit the big screen soon. On March 11, ‘Eye in the Sky’ will have a limited release in the U.S. The film premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival and has been praised for its portrayal of modern warfare. Indeed, drones are becoming a cornerstone of security and defense agencies worldwide and it’s interesting to see how ‘Eye in the Sky’ portrays this technology.

 The film’s plot is as follows: a combined U.S-UK intelligence operation is being carried out in Nairobi, Kenya. A drone has located a British female citizen who converted to Islam and joinedAl-Shabaab, a real-world terrorist organization. The operation quickly goes from surveillance to target-killing when a bird-sized drone shows that alongside the wanted woman is another terrorist preparing a suicide vest. This twist prompts a debate between British and American policymakers, military leaders, mission commanders and even the drone operators. Notably: Is an attack by an armed drone on the terrorist house necessary and legal? Moreover, does the death of two high-profile terrorists justify the likely collateral damage (in this case, the death of at least one civilian girl who is near the target)?

If the movie is as engaging as the trailer, ‘Eye in the Sky’ could become a military classic, akin to ‘Rules of Engagement’ or ‘Dr Strangelove’ (a Variety film review states that it recalls the Stanley Kubrick film). And for analysts like myself who follow drone technology, this movie appears to address all the key points about the controversial usage of these weapons.

One issue that the trailer correctly portrays is the rapid real-world development of drone technology. ‘Eye in the Sky’ introduces miniature drones complete with high-quality camera feeds.  In the movie, we see bird and insect mini-drones that fly into the terrorists’ house to identify the occupants. In reality, such mini-drones already exist. In 2015, for example, U.S. military scientists created a miniature drone called the Cicada. According to DefenseNews.com, with “no motor and only about 10 parts” the Cicada “resembles a paper airplane with a circuit board.” It was manufactured to glide to pre-programmed GPS coordinates after being dropped from an aircraft or even a bigger drone.

The potential of mini-drones is seemingly endless, as recently noted by the Israeli defense news company i-HLS: “coupled with a distributed explosive-carrying capacity, [a group of them] could make for a cheap, hard to detect yet easy to deliver killing swarm.”

As for the plot of the film itself, the issue of collateral damage is a clear echo of real life as thousands of civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and in the Horn of Africa have died as result of attacks by armed drones, which were targeting insurgents in the near surroundings. And from the trailer, it appears that the characters’ arguments are similar to those that really take place in Washington and London.

Of particular interest will be how the movie displays the emotions of the drone operators. The trailer shows a drone operator boldly declaring “I will fire [this missile] when this [innocent civilian] girl is out of the way.” The effects of drone warfare on operators are only now beginning to be properly studied and understood. For example, Sudden Justice: America’s Secret Drone Wars has a comprehensive chapter entitled “The Intimacy of Remote Killing,” which includes various testimonies of drone operators and how remote killing affects them. Author Chris Woods concludes, “the [U.S.] Air Force rushed to expand its armed drone fleet following huge battlefield demand. Yet there was little understanding at first of the strains this would place on thousands of personnel fighting from the home front” (p. 173). Given this lack of detailed understanding, let’s hope that, at the least, films like ‘Eye in the Sky’ that deal with UAVs will properly address the psychological stresses of this job. Not to mention accurately display the real-life complexities of drone warfare, which, in a post-War on Terror world, will only continue to grow.

Book Chapter: 2008: The Andean Great War

2008: The Andean Great War - 

How A South American Conflict Could Have Erupted in 2008

W. Alejandro Sanchez

Book Chapter to be published in Future Wars: Storia della distopia militare

Virgilio Ilari - Editor

Societa di Storia Militare / Acies Edizioni Milani (2016)

Forthcoming

PDF Available: https://www.academia.edu/21268162/2016_Wilder_Alejandro_Sanchez_2008_The_Andean_Great_War_How_a_South_American_conflict_could_have_erupted_in_2008

Journal - Book Review: Russia, the Near Abroad, and the West: Lessons from the Moldova-Transdniestria Conflict,

Russia, The Near Abroad and the Moldova-Transdniestria Conflict - By William H. Hill
Book Review by W. Alejandro Sanchez
Journal of Slavic Military Studies
Volume 28, Issue 2. 2015
P. 439-441

Available: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13518046.2015.1030285

Book Review: BOOK REVIEW: THE GULF AND LATIN AMERICA: AN ASSESSMENT OF EXPECTATIONS AND CHALLENGES

"Book Review: The Gulf and Latin America: An Assessment of Expectations and Challenges"
W. Alejandro Sanchez
Council on Hemispheric Affairs
August 5, 2014
Originally published: http://www.coha.org/book-review-the-gulf-and-latin-america-an-assessment-of-expectations-and-challenges/

  

Edited by Alejandra Galindo
Gulf Research Centre Cambridge
2013
Available:http://www.amazon.com/The-Gulf-Latin-America-Expectations/dp/190986403X

A rock-ribbed truism is that the world is becoming increasingly interconnected, and there are fewer nations every year that can be described as isolated from the rest of the international community (i.e. North Korea or Turkmenistan). Nowadays Latin America has pluralized relations with several regions, even those that are geographically distant from the Western Hemisphere. The Gulf and Latin America, published by the respected Gulf Research Centre-Cambridge at Cambridge University, addresses relations between Latin America and various Gulf nations, such as Iran and the member nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council (i.e. Saudi Arabia).

Well-researched and archly professional, this book is meant for specialists interested in the growing inter-connectivity of nations from all corners of the world, including Latin America and the Gulf states.

A Strong Set of Contributors

The Gulf and Latin America is separated into six different chapters, each of them drafted by a different author, which discusses diverse aspects of Gulf-Latin America relations. Four chapters address Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Venezuela, with their diverse set of national interests and how they have approached Gulf nations.

The other two chapters discuss the book’s overall theme but from another point of view. Namely the chapter titled “The Role of Latin America in the Foreign Policies of GCC states,” explains where Latin America falls in the specter of priorities for member-states of the Gulf Cooperation Council. The other chapter analyzes how Iran, a persisting complicated and controversial international player, has approached Latin America in a unique fashion in order to counterbalance U.S. influence.

Each chapter is tightly researched, and their respective reference sections are quite comprehensive. It was a pleasure to see that each author took the time and patience to consult sources in more than one language, like Spanish, Portuguese, French and English. The authors also utilized healthy amounts of both older and modern sources. Case in point include the chapter on Mexico-Gulf relations cites a 1984 essay on Mexican foreign policy, hence depicting the overall level of research and intensity that were carried out by the multiple authors. The eclectic and well-balanced historical sources implant more academic weight and historical depth to The Gulf and Latin America.

Finally, a word must be offered regarding the contributors of The Gulf and Latin America. This group of high-caliber scholars and policymakers includes a renowned Mexican scholar and columnist, an official of Venezuela’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and a professor at the University of Brasilia; meanwhile the editor is Professor Alejandra Galindo from the Universidad de Monterrey in Mexico, who previously has offered us insightful analyses about Mexican foreign policy, oil diplomacy and fast-moving Arab Gulf geopolitics.

Educative Analyses

The chapters of The Gulf and Latin America provided a strong review of Gulf-Latin American relations, including a comprehensive account of the historical relations between the two regions. It may sound surprising to someone who is not a historian that these two regions did not discover each other within the past decades: their relations, in fact, date back centuries. Case in point, Mexico’s chapter explains how, “Mexico has had formal relations with the land then known as Persia since 1889, when the government of Porfirio Diaz (1884-1911) designated Sebastian Bernardo de Mier (ambassador to Britain) to be the representative to Iran,” (P. 123).

Moreover, Latin American-Gulf relations were pivotal to the creation of the most important and influential Arab-led multinational bloc: the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). This volume explains to the reader how,

Cooperation in the realm of global governance between the Arab monarchies of the Gulf and Latin American countries goes back several decades, even before the creation of the Gulf Cooperation Council. One of the most important outcomes of this cooperation was the creation, in 1960, of the OPEC. This organization was first proposed by Juan Pablo Perez Alfonso, minister of energy of Venezuela, and Shaikh Abdullah Al Tariqi, oil minister from Saudi Arabia … (P.32)

Additionally, The Gulf and Latin America discusses the national interests and foreign policy objectives of the Latin American and Gulf governments. For example, when discussing the summits involving South American and Arab countries (ASPA), Erick Viramontes, a Mexican columnist, explains,

While most Arab leaders saw ASPA as an opportunity to improve their position on issues like the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Palestinian question, and the Middle East policy of Western nations, the GCC states saw it as a means to strengthen their foreign assets acquisition strategy and to engage on issues of global governance. (P. 34)

Such explanations could not be more important in highlighting the different policy objectives of various Gulf governments.

Likewise, Mexico’s chapter also has insightful facts about Mexico City’s priorities. For example, Viramontes acknowledges that, “the relationship with the countries of the Gulf and in the Middle East in general, is more of a product of the initiative of the countries from those regions than from Mexico itself.’ (P. 122). Additionally, as an appreciated dividend, there are also a string of interesting anecdotes sprinkled throughout the chapter; like for example when the deposed Shah of Iran spent months in Mexico on a tourist visa thanks to the intervention of Henry Kissinger. (P. 124).

Additionally, this book is helpful in highlighting issues such as how domestic actors and events that manage to influence a country’s foreign policy in small ways as well as large. For example, the chapter “Chile and the Gulf: Identifying Channels of Cooperation” discusses the role of the Arab diaspora in Chile and how it influences relations between the South American nation and the Gulf (P. 182). Additionally, various chapters address the role of Latin America in the 2003 Iraq War, i.e. Chile. (P. 197). It is particularly worth noting how the chapter on Mexico associates Mexican political issues and that war, namely “when the crisis in Iraq was take for consideration by the UN Security Council […] it coincided with [Mexico’s] domestic elections to the deputies’ chamber.” (P.130) The essay explains how “political parties and some sections of society came out to demonstrate against the war on Iraq.” (P. 130)

Outstanding Issues

While The Gulf and Latin America is admirably well-written, there are subjects raised that would make a revised version even more compelling. One suggestion is that the book lacks a concluding chapter. It would have been an ideal development if Professor Galinda had written a final chapter that once again brought together the theses and various arguments of the book in order to attempt to predict the future of Gulf-Latin America relations.

The Gulf and Latin America is a strong piece of work in regards as it provides historical reviews and contemporary analyses of modern Gulf-Latin American relations. This makes it ideal as an academic offering, but, as previously mentioned, the book could also benefit from further analysis of what could happen in the future in order to make it a must read for policymakers in Latin America, the Gulf or in Washington (which has strong interests in both targeted regions).

Additionally, there are some statements or facts that are not fully discussed or outlined. One prominent example is in the chapter “The Role of Latin America in the Foreign Policies of GCC States” which explains how in July 2010, Kuwait’s then-Prime Minister, Shaikh Nasser Al Ahmad Al-Sabah, embarked on a nine-nation tour of Latin America and the Caribbean. The chapter explains that “Shaikh Nasser visited Antigua and Barbuda – which caused some controversy in the Kuwaiti Parliament,” and then goes to enumerate the other countries that he visited (P. 37). The problem here is that there is no further discussion or clarification as to why the Kuwaiti Parliament could object to the Prime Minister travelling to said Caribbean nation. Unless the reader is something of an expert on relations between St. John’s and Kuwait City, the issue is not properly explained nor is it addressed again in the essay.

Furthermore, there are a couple of issues that could have been better clarified, or require updating given recent events. For example on the chapter regarding “Iranian Policy towards Latin America as a Countermeasure against US Hegemony,” the author highlights the 1992 and 1994 attacks “against Jewish targets in Buenos Aires, Argentina,” which Iran is widely suspected of orchestrating. (P. 49) It is important to stress that in January 2013 Iran and Argentina agreed to create a very controversial joint “truth commission” to investigate the 1994 bomb attack against the Argentine Jewish Mutual Aid Association (AMIA), in which 85 people died. This move has been criticized precisely because the Iranian government is accused of having carried out attacks, so it seems contradictory to achieving justice if Buenos Aires provides the prime suspect of this terrorist attack the ability to pass judgement on itself.

Finally, the sub-section of Iranian-Bolivian relations within the Iran-Latin America chapter correctly notes that “Nicaragua and Bolivia have not seen much of the millions of dollars of promised Iranian aid, although some projects are being funded.” (P. 59). One incident that would have been worth mentioning in this section occurred in mid-2011 when Iran’s Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi visited Bolivia. The Iranian policymaker was forced to leave the country earlier than planned as Buenos Aires and “contacted Interpol’s offices in Bolivia to demand Vahidi’s arrest as soon as Argentina became aware that he was in South America.”[1] Vahidi is currently wanted by Interpol for his alleged role in the 1994 attack as at the time he was the commander of a special unit of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard known as the Quds Force. The official left the landlocked Andean state, and issued a hasty apologetic statement. Hence, it is surprising that the author on the Iran chapter for The Gulf in Latin America, did not choose to mention this incident as it highlights how Tehran’s history with Latin America affects its current diplomatic initiatives with the region.

An Updated Version would be Invaluable

The Gulf in Latin America is another piece of the puzzle that helps provide a more complete picture of how Latin American nations are becoming more active members of the global community, as they approach nations as geographically distant as the Gulf. While some arguments and examples require greater clarification and analysis, the contributors of this book have done a very efficient job at explaining how nations like Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Venezuela, among others more briefly mentioned, have approached Saudi Arabia, Iran and the Gulf Cooperation Council. There is a diverse list of issues that can serve as a catalyst to bring the two regions further closer. This is the type of work that rightfully deserves a second, expanded edition.

At the time of this writing, the violence in the Middle East continues, namely between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. As a sign of protest to ongoing Israeli military operations and to demonstrate solidarity with Palestine, several Latin American nations (i.e. Brazil and Peru), have recalled their ambassadors from Tel Aviv. Even if this diplomatic move will have little effect on Tel Aviv’s security policies, it does stress how Latin America is becoming more interested in Middle East geopolitics along with Arab affairs. Recent developments stress the need for more in-depth academic projects like The Gulf in Latin America.

Please accept this article as a free contribution from COHA, but if re-posting, please afford authorial and institutional attribution. Exclusive rights can be negotiated. For additional news and analysis on Latin America, please go to: LatinNews.com and Rights Action.

References

[1] Robin Yapp, “Iran defence minister forced to leave Bolivia over 1994 Argentina Bombing.” The Telegraph. Bolivia. Available:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/bolivia/8550445/Iran-defence-minister-forced-to-leave-Bolivia-over-1994-Argentina-bombing.html

Book Review: Hunting Che

Hunting Che: How A U.S. Special Forces Team Helped Capture The World's Most Famous Revolutionary
Book Review
W. Alejandro Sanchez
Book review published in War Studies Publications
October 3, 2013
Originally published: http://warstudiespublications.wordpress.com/2013/10/03/hunting-che-how-a-u-s-special-forces-team-helped-capture-the-worlds-most-famous-revolutionary/

Reading Maurer and Weiss’s book was a pleasure, with its in-depth research, its enjoyable writing style, and spy-novel tone. Fans of Mark Bowden’s famous books Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War and Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World’s Greatest Outlaw will enjoy the style of writing that Maurer and Weiss utilize.

The Plot

As the title entails, the book revolves around the hunt for the iconic Argentine revolutionary, Ernesto “Che” Guevara in the Bolivian highlands in 1967. Specifically, this work focuses on the role that the U.S. military (and intelligence operatives) played in aiding the Bolivian government and security forces in tracking down Che. Over the decades, there have been a plethora of conspiracy theories regarding just how involved the U.S. was in this endeavor. Investigative works as well as the release of classified documents confirm that, indeed, Washington had an important role to play: a number of U.S. Rangers trained Bolivian soldiers, transforming them, via an intensive training course, into a Ranger battalion in its own right. It is these Bolivian soldiers who were ultimately deployed to the area where Che’s guerrilla forces operated and were successful in tracking and eliminating them.

Part of what makes this book so fun to read is that it provides various points of view. This is not just a discussion of what role the U.S. had to play. The authors took the extra effort of trying to paint a picture of what Bolivia’s domestic situation was at the time of Che’s arrival, as well as delving into the contemporary state of  global geopolitics. For example, the authors explain how Bolivian President Barrientos was concerned that Che’s guerrilla movement could isolate towns and foment protests that could overthrow his government. When Barrientos went to the U.S. for aid, he related the gravity of the situation by saying that if Bolivia fell, Che’s “foco” insurgency could expand to other South American countries. For its part, the U.S. government wanted to avoid another Vietnam, but at the same time they did not want to send military personnel that would be actively fighting Che’s forces. The training of Bolivian troops was essentially a compromise.

Moreover, the book portrays differing points of views of Bolivian and American policymakers, military officers, rank-and-file troops, intelligence officers and even Bolivian peasants. The book is generally organized in a chronological order, beginning with the first ambushes Che carried out against Bolivian army patrols, the deployment of the U.S. Rangers, the training of the new Bolivian Second Ranger Batallion and Che’s ultimate defeat (and execution). However the book includes a good number of flashbacks in order to explain why a certain policymaker or soldier thought the way he did. In other words,Hunting Che provides an emphasis on the personal, not focusing on casualty statistics but instead on relating the stories of the individuals involved.

Not An Academic Book

Although Maurer and Weiss researched exhaustively, it must be stressed that this should not be regarded as a standard academic book. As previously mentioned, it reads more like a spy-action novel. For example, when discussing a shootout by Che’s guerrillas and a Bolivian army patrol, the authors write how “rounds sliced through the brush, wood slivers and mud flew upward and perfumed the air” (p. 12).

Moreover, Che is discussed throughout most of the book as almost an omnipresent and omnipotent figure, which is how he probably was viewed in 1967 Bolivia. No one (including the CIA) knew if he was in Bolivia or how many troops he had at his disposal (it was believed that he had hundreds of heavily trained guerrillas, both Bolivian and Cuban) – for some time it was not even clear if he was alive. The sporadic discussions of Che’s life throughout the book add to his omnipresence, and the iconic guerrilla only makes a grand entrance briefly towards the end of the book, when he’s captured.

Furthermore, the authors  also provide a strong background on the situation within Bolivia, Latin America and U.S. interests in the region, all placed in the wider context of the Cold War and U.S.-USSR (via Cuba) proxy wars. Nevertheless, the analysis is not put in a linear way. Moreover, there is not an introductory chapter that explains who was Che Guevara. There are paragraphs about his life and the actions he carried out during his time in Cuba scattered throughout the book, but Hunting Che almost assumes that the reader will have a general idea of who Guevara was before reading it. There is a memorable discussion between Guevara and his captors (U.S. and Bolivian) towards the end of the book (Chapters 22 and 23), but his background story does not read as easily unless the reader already knows some facts about his life (i.e. his role in the Cuban government).

Nevertheless, the authors excel when it comes to discussing Bolivian domestic issues and regional geopolitics in the 1960s, a daunting task for any historian. Maurer and Weiss correctly describe the highlights of Bolivian history, including the importance of the 1952 coup as well as the concerns for President Barrientos regarding the future of his presidency.

Moreover, while the authors try to be objective, readers will notice quickly that U.S. Rangers are slightly glorified (i.e. carrying out civic projects like rebuilding  a school besides training Bolivian soldiers, p. 96), while some U.S. diplomats are portrayed in a negative light. At the same time, the Bolivian military pre-U.S. training is constantly portrayed as backward, with its officers not being capable to adjust to a new style of war (from the traditional inter-state warfare to counterinsurgency), and its soldiers receiving poor training. Certainly, some Bolivian officers and soldiers (who were trained by the U.S. Rangers) are portrayed positively, with background stories which explained that they valued patriotism and honor, but these are exceptions to the rule.

The negative portrayal of the Bolivian military in the 1960s, while arguably true, still hints at a larger issue which the authors do not address head on: Could the Bolivian military have successfully defeated Che without having received training by the U.S. Rangers? This question would need another book to be properly answered.

 One Factual Issue

While the book is well researched, there is one issue that must be highlighted. While giving a quick overview of Bolivian military history, the authors explain that “a hundred years before, a fight with Chile […] had cost Bolivia its entire coastline. Thirty years later, Bolivia and Paraguay had sacrificed a generation of their young men in “the Chaco War.” (p. 20).

The first conflict that the authors refer to is known as the War of the Pacific, which pinned Peru and Bolivia against Chile (which had military aid from the British Empire). This war took place from 1879 to 1883. Meanwhile, the Chaco War between Bolivia and Paraguay occurred from 1932 to1935. In other words, there is actually a difference between these two conflicts of roughly fifty years, not thirty as the authors of Hunting Che explain. While this is a minor issue in the wider scope of the book, it should be noted.

Research Methods

While in graduate school, a professor once told me that the first thing a scholar should do when browsing through a new book (an academic/scholarly one), is to check its reference list in order to see what works the author(s) of the book consulted. Hunting Che has a good bibliography, which includes works by Fidel Castro, Gary Prado (a Bolivian military officer trained by the U.S. Rangers and who was ultimately responsible for capturing Che, making him a national hero) as well as one of Che’s publications.

Nevertheless, I will admit that at first glance, I was confounded as the reference list hints at works and document that are nearly all in English. However, the epilogue of Hunting Che explains how the authors interviewed individuals (Bolivian and American) who actually took part in the training of the Bolivian Rangers as well as Che’s capture. This exemplary use of both primary and secondary sources should be applauded by scholars and fans of Latin American history.