Jeremy Shonick

Cesar's Wars: the Rise of America's Special Forces Jeremy Shonick

CESAR'S WARS is based on the true story of Roberto César Montiel, a Special Forces soldier and CIA operative who made American history for 35 years: The portable atomic bomb. The creation of Special Forces. The Bay of Pigs. The School of the Americas. Korea. Vietnam. Operation Phoenix. Operation Condor. The Contras. Non-official Cover. Interrogations. Torture. Through it all, his family paid the price. There were other women. PTSD. Alcoholism and abuse. In the end, the violence always comes full circle. "You're like a Mafia wife," his oldest son tells his mother. "The more dad kills, the more you pray." CESAR'S WARS is also the tale of a first generation American family that struggles to endure the sacrifices and understand the sins committed in the name of God, country, democracy and empire. From the rebuilding of post-war Europe and Japan, through the turbulent 1960s, and the covert South American operations of the 1980s and beyond, this is a story of a family and a nation in crisis. CESAR'S WARS: The Rise of America's Special Forces is the first book in a four-part series. The story is told mainly from the first-person, no-nonsense point of view of Roberto, a complex and principled patriot. But he does not always have the last word. The voice of his wife, Faith, who struggles through wars and personal tragedy to hold the family together, and his oldest son, Roberto César Jr., who questions everything that his father stands for, are also presented. Based on over two hundred hours of taped interviews, their stories vividly illuminate the cloaked, forward guard operations that marked the Cold War, as well as the endless interpersonal repercussions - between husband and wife, father and son, and brother and brother - that are the personal cost of war.