One man’s tragic descent into Ronald Reagan’s secret war in Central America
In his short, tragic life, soldier of fortune Steven Carr fought three intertwined wars. First, stirred by Ronald Reagan’s words, he volunteered to join the Contras in Central America and witnessed these “freedom fighters” running guns and drugs. Second, he exposed Washington’s lies and drew its wrath. Third, Carr struggled against his own cocaine addiction, which killed him—or did it?
Marshaling rarely used documents and original interviews, Alan McPherson spotlights the little-known characters populating the military privatization scheme hidden inside Iran-Contra, the biggest scandal of the 1980s. While many believed the Contras to be anticommunist heroes, dozens of Americans volunteering for an undeclared proxy war brought out the vilest aspects of off-the-books warfare: profiteering, corruption, secrecy, and attempts to interfere in politics —all of which engulfed Carr. Intrepid journalists, senate investigators, and a public defender tried to help him and other expendable patriots tell their stories, only to be silenced. Privatized war has mushroomed since the Cold War, and Carr’s struggles offer a cautionary tale to those who would entrust the gravest task a society can take on—going to war—to self-interested individuals and corporations.
