Dinges, John. Our Man in Panama: How General Noriega Used the United States and Made Millions in Drugs and Arms. New York: Random House, 1990. 403 pages.

Noriega's life is threaded through this account of corrupt Panamanian politics and U.S.-Panama relations since the 1960s, with emphasis on the period of Noriega's strongman leadership that concluded with George Bush's invasion of December, 1989.

Noriega's career of drug trafficking and money laundering alternated with periods of close cooperation with the DEA to arrest competitors. He was preceded by Gen. Omar Torrijos, a populist whose rule was ended in a suspicious 1981 plane crash that some believe was CIA-arranged. Noriega enjoyed a long stint on the CIA payroll in return for many services, such as helping the covert wars against Salvadoran rebels and his offer of assistance to Oliver North. In 1984 the U.S. suppressed evidence of Noriega's electoral fraud.

John Dinges is an editor at National Public Radio. His book went to press three months after the invasion, so it isn't much help in figuring out what led to this important event, and whether it was really intended to help the Panamanians. Hopefully others will pick up where he left off.
ISBN 0-394-54910-4

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