Death Squad

I don’t recall learning about death squads at my fancy prep school; the term probably hadn’t been coined yet.  Just as there has always been political assassination, there have always been death squads, though that isn’t what they were called.  The term, “death squad” is a product of the sixties. They grew up as a part of, if not the essence of, Kennedy’s counter-insurgency strategy against communism.  I didn’t hear about it at the University of Virginia which could have been my fault, but I doubt it. Foreign policy was my major, and though there was surely reading that didn’t get done, I never missed a class.  It may have been before the ugly fact had clawed its way into a college text book.  I don’t remember the term in law school at the time of the war in Vietnam.  That leaves my working life, and there was one particular moment that hasn’t left me. Continue reading →