David Francois – författare

A history of the build-up and the ultimate clash during the Chilean coup of 11 September 1973, featuring over 100 color photos, profiles, and maps.In 1970, Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens, a physician and leftist politician, was elected the President of Chile. Involved in political life for nearly 40 years, Allende adopted a policy of nationalization of industries and collectivization—measures that brought him on a collision course with the legislative and judicial branches of the government, and then the center-right majority of the Chilean Congress. Before long, calls were issued for his overthrow by force. Indeed, on 11 September 1973, the military—supported by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the USA—moved to oust Allende, and surrounded La Moneda Palace. After refusing a safe passage, Allende gave his farewell speech on live radio, and La Moneda was then subjected to air strikes and an assault by the Chilean Army. Allende committed suicide.Following Allende''s death, General Augusto Pinochet installed a military junta, thus ending almost four decades of uninterrupted democratic rule in the country. His repressive regime remained in power until 1990.Starting with an in-depth study of the Chilean military, paramilitary forces and different leftist movements in particular, this volume traces the history of the build-up and the ultimate clash during the coup of 11 September 1973.Providing minute details about the motivation, organization and equipment of all involved parties, it also explains why the Chilean military not only launched the coup but also imposed itself in power, and how the leftist movements reactedIllustrated with over 100 photographs, color profiles, and maps describing the equipment, colors, markings and tactics of the Chilean military and its opponents, it is a unique study into a well-known yet much under-studied aspect of Latin America''s military history."The text is interesting and provides a very readable account and context to what happened and throughout the book, it is well illustrated with archive photos, maps and some fine colour profiles of armoured vehicles and aircraft which modellers in particular will like. I like this series of Latin America at War series from Helion, and have learnt a lot." —Military Model Scene

A history of the Sandinista takeover of this Central American nation and the uneasy decades leading up to it, with maps, photos, and illustrations. In the wake of the US invasion of Nicaragua in 1912, the country came under the rule of the Somoza family, which imposed a brutal, corrupt military dictatorship. A low-scale insurgency of students, supported by peasants and other anti-Somoza elements of the society, had developed already in the 1960s. By the 1970s, the country was embroiled in revolt. Supported by Cuba, a coalition of students, farmers, businessmen, clergy, and a small group of Marxists launched a major war in 1978, which resulted in the downfall of the Somozas a year later. The Sandinista government established in Managua in 1979 found the country ruined by the long war and natural disasters, and nearly half the population homeless or living in exile. Attempting to restructure and recover the underdeveloped economy, Sandinistas introduced a wide range of reforms and a cultural revolution. Drawing on extensive studies of involved armed groups, and their insurgencies in the 1960s and 1970s, Nicaragua, 1961-1990, Volume 1 provides in-depth coverage of military history during the first phase of one of major armed conflicts of Latin America in modern times. Moving meticulously through the details of involved forces, their ideologies, organization, and equipment, this book is an accurate, blow-by-blow account of the Nicaraguan War, illustrated with more than 120 photos, maps, and color artworks. Also available is Volume 2 of this series, which focuses on the new war that raged through Nicaragua for most of the 1980s after the US, considering the Sandinistas "Cuban-supported Marxists" and thus a major threat to US domination of Latin America, began supporting the creation of the Contrarevolutionary forces (better known as Contras). "A lavishly photo-illustrated and detailed chronological account of the Somoza military dictatorship in Nicaragua and its overthrow in 1979." —Perspectives on Terrorism