The School of the Americas: Military Training and Political Violence in the Americas

by Lesley Gill

Book Overview

Located at Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia, the School of the Americas (soa) is a U.S. Army center that has trained more than sixty thousand soldiers and police, mostly from Latin America, in counterinsurgency and combat-related skills since it was founded in 1946. So widely documented is the participation of the School's graduates in torture, murder, and political repression throughout Latin America that in 2001 the School officially changed its...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0822333929
• ISBN13: 9780822333920
• Release Date: September 2004
• Publisher: Duke University Press
• Length: 281 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

very informative

If you have ever wanted to know more about the School of the Americas, or need information for research (as I did) this book has a lot of great information and history of the topic.

Fantastic Study of the School of the Assassins

This is an extremely well written study of the military training given to soldiers from all over Latin America. It explains how various ideologies have been used over the past sixty years in order to justify military repression of social movements and the quest for democratic institutions. It examine how the original ideology of containing communism morphed into the war on drugs; and finally into the war on terrorism. This should be required reading for any course on foreign relations or international relations.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart's Review of The School of the Americas

After reading the introduction to Lesley Gill's The School of the Americas (SOA), I felt stimulated to resolve some of my long-standing issues with the United States involvement in the Cold War - especially regarding the military's ability to withstand the freezing temperatures during this crucial period in world history. Unfortunately, upon conclusion I too was left with a chilly feeling. It may have been the brain freeze from the Popsicle I licked too fast, but more likely from the lack of hard evidence portrayed in the following chapters. I was impressed with the extent of research and fieldwork done to complete Gill's study of the United States military training facility on Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia, however, I also was sedated by page after of page of expendable information that only seemed to add to the number of minutes before I could warm up again in a hot bath with the Bush twins. The tone of this perpetual debate over the United States involvement and manipulation of Latin American countries during and after the Cold War has escalated in recent years in response to the number of military officials, trained in the SOA that have violated international human rights laws such as torture, mass violence, and genocide. This is likely the justification for Gill's book - a firsthand assessment of the School's mission and training methods alluding to some connection between the School and the acts of terror committed in Latin and South America. The author's first mistake was her decision to bring up the attacks of September 11, 2005 in the opening paragraph, and make a parallel to the atrocities in Latin America. She claims the US has been involved in countless terrorist acts around the world and is capable of covering them up by using non-Americans to do their "dirty work." "The American state rules less through the control of territory than through the penetration and manipulation of subordinate states that retain considerable political independence (pg 3)." At first this seemed to set the stage for a great book. Who doesn't like conspiracy theories? I almost picked up the phone to call Michael Moore, but I decided to read on instead. Gill proposes the idea that the United States government is partially responsible for various atrocities based on their history of providing military training and equipment to insurgents and guerillas for personal benefits. Nevertheless, where should we place the blame? On the assassin who is trained and ordered to carry out these attacks or on the person who actually is funding or teaching or even ordering these attacks to occur? As Bush would say, "we aren't here to play the blame game." The author's proposal to place blame on the US government can be emotionally inspiring for the reader, but it doesn't actually prove anything unless more evidence is found. 241 pages later, with my bladder on the verge of exploding and my eyes blood shot red, she finally refers back to the attacks on the Wo

Gill Illuminates Global Secrets

I can still recall my curiosity as a young girl hearing the cryptically delivered advice from one woman to another: "Honey, what you do in the dark will certainly come out in the light, e---ver--y time." Today, the quotation comes immediately to mind as I think about Lesley Gill's investigative book, The School of the Americas: Military Training and Political Violence in the Americas. Perhaps my juxtaposition of Gill's book and the chatter between women appears as an unlikely pairing, but her disclosures of US involvement with Latin Americans, particularly up and coming military officers, certainly reveals North America's clandestine activities illuminated by an astute writer. Gill, an Associate Professor of Anthropology at American University, prevails as the consummate teacher who seamlessly employs vocabulary for both the novice and the experienced student of international affairs. Her ease of language serves as a major draw in understanding how American leaders exploited the School of the Americas, located first in Panama and later in Columbus, Georgia, to underhandedly endorse corrupt Latino governmental officials. Having also authored Teetering on the Rim: Global Restructuring, Daily Life, and the Armed Retreat of the Bolivian State and Precarious Dependencies: Gender, Class and Domestic Service in Bolivia, Gill is well armed (pardon the pun) in Latin American study and the myriad dimensions of corrupt political rule. Beginning with the school's inception in 1941 and progressing to its name change to the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, in 2001, Gill delivers a comprehensive overview for her readers. While her expertise lies mostly with Bolivian culture, Gill adroitly summarizes the SOA's political tentacles in Peru, Argentina, Honduras, Bolivia and Nicaragua. Each re-telling of the personal stories from military officers and the disavowed personalizes her message for both her supporters and distracters. Gill attacks what's done in presumed darkness. According to Gill, the United States grants tacit approval to innumerable human rights violations by its support of foreign enrollment at the SOA. It is obvious, right from the start, that she's appalled by the contradictory message of a nation founded on the principles of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" endorsing an institution like the SOA. When interviewed by Aaron Mandel for the magazine, American Prospect On-Line, Gill emphatically states "there is no useful purpose for the institution. It's symbolic, really, of the abusive practices from the Cold War right up to the present. It would be better closed and made into a museum to commemorate the lives of the people murdered by SOA graduates."It's almost unbelievable that given the wide ranging influence of the school, virtually no one has heard of it, including many seasoned military personnel bur that fact evolves as a major tenet of Gill's thesis. Gill clearly illuminates the long kept sec