This book provides a paradigm of the coup and provides a historical basis for that paradigm that is unsurpassed in its objectivity and research. The author of this book has spent over a decade living and working with military and political figures throughout Latin America. His book is both an educational and an exciting peek into the dark world of military subversion by an observer who has seen it first hand.

The coup d'etat has defied all attempts at rational analysis. This is hardly surprising, in that it is born in darkness and very frequently dies there, only coming to light in the last moments before either a bloody defeat or a stunning success. The participants on the military side are frequently reluctant to discuss their activities, even long after the fact, and their civilian victims can usually only guess at what happened to them. Previous studies have often been heavily tainted by the politics of the writer, categorizing the coup as a product of class struggle, the cold war, or outright foreign intervention by the superpowers.

The author of this book has spent over a decade living and working closely with military and political figures throughout Latin America and has used the fruits of literally hundreds of encounters (ranging from simple interviews to longtime friendships) to piece together an insightful picture of this nebulous but very real phenomenon. He has identified the motives of coup plotters and the means by which they go about building the coalition necessary to overthrow a government. Rather than use hypothetical cases to illustrate his points, he has drawn on history to demonstrate how coups succeed and why they fail. This book is both an educational and an exciting peek into the dark world of military subversion by an observer who has seen it first hand.

This book examines the role of the military in the wave of democratization that has swept through Latin America in the past decade. Although much of the leading literature on the transition to democracy recognizes the importance of hardline and softline factions within the military in this process, the author takes this study one step further to investigate the motivations of the military officers themselves. Using the cases of Brazil and Bolivia, and relying on dozens of interviews with military officers, politicians, jurists, and other observers throughout Latin America, he determines that the factions' attitudes do not depend primarily on ideological commitment but on the leaders' calculation, as to the career benefits to their followers of either supporting or opposing democratization. In terms of policy making, it is important to recognize this distinction in order to help preserve the fragile democracies which are already under threat from the military once again.

The Atacama Desert, a coastal area where the borders of Chile, Peru, and Bolivia meet, was a region of little interest in the late nineteenth century until European research on the use of nitrates in fertilizers and explosives rendered the droppings of millions of sea birds a valuable commodity. In a move that echoed the California Gold Rush, the three neighboring countries soon battled for control of the region. In 1879, a comparatively modern and powerful Chile seized Bolivia's coastal province, and a secret alliance between Peru and Bolivia soon led to a full-scale war, one which saw the employment of much new military technology.

Using such new weapons as the breech-loading rifle, rapid-fire cannon, ironclad warships, torpedoes, and electronic mines, Chile quickly crushed the allied armies, but a guerrilla war would drag on for years. While the three armies fought over some of the most inhospitable terrain imaginable, from burning, waterless deserts to snow-clogged mountain passes at 15,000 feet, their governments bumbled and wrangled. In the end, the lure of easy wealth undermined the economies of all three nations and served no good purpose when the market for nitrates soon evaporated, leaving all three much poorer for the experience.

Highly readable political and military account of the war that devastated both Paraguay and Bolivia. Based exclusively on published sources, emphasizes Bolivian actions more than those of Paraguay"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 58.