Ghosts of Panama: A Strongman Out of Control, A Murdered Marine, and the Special Agents Caught in the Middle of an Invasion

Special Agent Rick Yell had been stationed in Panama gaining intelligence from a source known to us only as “The Old Man” for years before 1989. That year, dictator Manuel Noriega’s effects on international sociopolitics motivated the U.S. to invade the Central American country. Mark Harmon and Leon Carroll Jr. outline some of the events leading up to the unprecedented invasion and manhunt.

This book feels like it went out unedited. I don’t mean that it is brutally honest or bravely transparent. I mean it is poorly composed. Ghosts of Panama reads less like a cohesive narrative than like sifting through newspaper articles from various sources. There is an over-use of direct citations. At other times interesting points are glossed over with a footnote referencing a source. This just makes me want to read the other books cited instead.

The authors deserve some credit for bringing those sources together. Presenting them the way they are does give the reader freedom to interpret, making moral considerations on their own. Although a certain stance is implied by the writers, they never didactically tell the reader how to feel about the H.W. Bush administration’s historic decision to invade Panama.