The Massacre at El Mozote: A Parable of the Cold War - Softcover

Danner, Mark

Softcover

ISBN 10: 067975525X ISBN 13: 9780679755258

Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 1994

Synopsis

In December 1981 soldiers of the Salvadoran Army's select, American-trained Atlacatl Battalion entered the village of El Mozote, where they murdered hundreds of men, women, and children, often by decapitation. Although reports of the massacre -- and photographs of its victims -- appeared in the United States, the Reagan administration quickly dismissed them as propaganda. In the end, El Mozote was forgotten. The war in El Salvador continued, with American funding.

When Mark Danner's reconstruction of these events first appeared in The New Yorker, it sent shock waves through the news media and the American foreign-policy establishment. Now Danner has expanded his report into a brilliant book, adding new material as well as sources. He has produced a masterpiece of scrupulous investigative journalism that is also a testament to the forgotten victims of a neglected theater of the cold war.

About this title

Review:

"Mark Danner is one of our best, most ambitious narrative journalists. He writes only on what he knows deeply, cares about passionately. His harrowing, rebuking account of an atrocious episode of the civil war in El Salvador touches on many of the central issues raised by American policies and journalistic practice in the Cold War and after. This is an admirable, necessary book."

-- Susan Sontag

"Mark Danner's account of what happened at El Mozote is a gripping story on three levels -- that of the massacre, that of the official cover-up and that of the press. It is also a brilliant piece of writing." -- Frances FitzGerald

Synopsis:

"Thorough account of Dec. 1981 massacre of villagers by Salvadoran armed forces includes details of subsequent cover-up. Guerrillas acknowledged many civilian victims were rebel supporters, but El Mozote was Protestant stronghold unreceptive even to liberation theology. Good overview of military, de

About this edition

• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 067975525X
• ISBN 13: 9780679755258
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320