El Salvador

The United States Military Advisory Group in El Salvador, 1979-1992 - Major Paul Cale, US Army. US Marine Corps Command and Staff College thesis, 1996.  That the United States Military Advisory Group in El Salvador helped an emerging democratic nation combat a communist supported insurgent threat. That U.S. Army personnel assigned to the Military Advisory Group, and those deployed to that nation for training, helped in transforming the Salvadoran Armed Forces (ESAF) into a professional military force.  Did the expanded U.S. Military Advisory Group in the Republic of El Salvador achieve the political / military goals set for them by the United States Ambassador to El Salvador and the Commander, United States Southern Command, during the period 1979 through 1992?  The Government of El Salvador and the FMLN signed a United Nations brokered peace agreement in 1992 following twelve years of armed conflict. This agreement could not have been signed without the assistance of U.S. military aid, specifically the augmented Military Advisory Group.  What did they do? How did they do it? What did they achieve? Will the peace agreement last? What has the United States learned throughout this conflict? This paper will answer these questions.

The Air War in El Salvador - Dr. James Corum. Airpower Journal article, Summer 1998. The civil war in El Salvador which lasted from 1980 to 1992, was one of the largest and bloodiest insurgencies that the Western Hemisphere has seen. During the 12-year war, an estimated one hundred thousand people died—fairly horrendous losses for a country of only five million people. The war in El Salvador saw significant involvement by the United States in the form of military and economic aid, advisors, and training. During the course of the war, the United States poured $4.5 billion of economic aid into the country and over $1 billion in military aid. Almost a quarter of the US military aid was provided to the Salvadoran Air Force. Some aspects of the war in El Salvador and the US involvement have been told in numerous books and publications. Yet, al though air power played a major role in the conflict, its story has not been dealt with in any detail. In deed, there are no books or major journal articles specifically on the history of the Salvadoran Air Force during the war. Considering that the Salvadoran war provides us with one of the most recent examples of the use of airpower in a counter insurgency campaign, this is a significant gap in the literature about the use of airpower in modern warfare.