Rebels for the Cause

Abstract

In the mid-1980s, John Singlaub and those around him tried to globalize the covert war campaigns they had launched in Central America. By 1985, he and others were working to support paramilitary forces in not only Nicaragua and El Salvador but also Afghanistan, Angola, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Speaking in a language of masculinity and brotherhood, they linked these disparate conflicts into a joint struggle that promised a final triumph over the Soviet Union by dragging it into a series of unwinnable wars. As Reagan entered his second term, retired covert warriors and a legion of conservative activists strove to make that plan into a reality. They traveled to Afghanistan, Angola, and Southeast Asia to meet with rebels in the field. They solicited donations from individuals, businesses, churches, and international groups to lobby Congress. They utilized a variety of media outlets to valorize the world’s freedom fighters in U.S. political culture. And they tried to give rebel groups whatever weapons and supplies they could. Combined, all of this activity constituted a relatively unpublicized, private, and multinational paramilitary operation.