In the early 1980s, the Cold War clashes that had bloodied other parts of the world shifted to Central America. Following the overthrow of Nicaragua's Somoza government by the left-wing Sandinista rebels in 1979, the United States sought to prop up El Salvador's right-wing military government as a backstop against home-grown insurgents and rising Soviet and Cuban influence. Its role helped fuel a lethal 13-year civil war. Legacy of Lies contains previously unpublished black-and-white images that American photographer Robert Nickelsberg produced on behalf of TIME magazine and is supplemented by essays by renowned journalists.
