Bibliograph

The death of ben linder, the story of a north american in sandinista nicaragua, Joan Kruckewitt

Type

Label

The death of ben linder, the story of a north american in sandinista nicaragua, Joan Kruckewitt

Language

eng

Index

no index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

The death of ben linder

Nature of contents

dictionaries

Responsibility statement

Joan Kruckewitt

Sub title

the story of a north american in sandinista nicaragua

Summary

In 1987, the death of Ben Linder, the first American killed by President Reagan's "freedom fighters" -- the U.S.-backed Nicaraguan Contras -- ignited a firestorm of protest and debate. In this landmark first biography of Linder, investigative journalist Joan Kruckewitt tells his story. In the summer of 1983, a 23-year-old American named Ben Linder arrived in Managua with a unicycle and a newly earned degree in engineering. In 1986, Linder moved from Managua to El Cuá, a village in the Nicaraguan war zone, where he helped form a team to build a hydroplant to bring electricity to the town. He was ambushed and killed by the Contras the following year while surveying a stream for a possible hydroplant. In 1993, Kruckewitt traveled to the Nicaraguan mountains to investigate Linder's death. In July 1995. she finally located and interviewed one of the men who killed Ben Linder, a story that became the basis for a New Yorker feature on Linder's death. Linder's story is a portrait of one idealist who died for his beliefs, as well as a picture of a failed foreign policy, vividly exposing the true dimensions of a war that forever marked the lives of both Nicaraguans and Americans. * * * *

Target audience

adult

Classification