Reviewed by Beverly J. Rowe, MyShelf.com
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In 1989 the United States sent American troops to arrest General Manuel Antonio Noreiga, Panama's highest military officer. Trying a foreign leader for events that took place in his own country as violations of U.S. law was previously unheard of in American history. Stopping the Medellin Cartel was a major step in slowing down the influx of illegal Cocaine and other drugs.

Harris unravels the complicated story with wit and verve, very colorful language, marvelous humor, and a sense of excitement. Harris makes the FBI, DEA and CIA agents appear to be involved in a bumbling, amusing, tragedy. Oliver North was engaged in clandestine arms dealing and nobody seemed to know what anybody else was doing.

Here is a true crime story on a grand scale with betrayal, murder, arms dealing and drug smuggling that reads like good fiction. Here are the explanations of the Reagan administration's dealings with the Sandinistas and Contras; names that were always in the news in association with cover-ups and destroyed evidence by government agencies, though the public didn't really know what was going on. Harris has done a superior job of investigative reporting to create an impressive chronicle of the events leading up to the invasion of Panama and the arrest of Manuel Antonio Noreiga. He made history come alive and really gave me a much better understanding of the events that were in the news for so long, and the role and fate of each of the historical players in this drama of our time.

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