Legacy of Lies

Previously unpublished images by the Time magazine photographer illuminate an important chapter in Latin American history.

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Legacy of Lies contains previously unpublished black-and-white images that American photo- grapher Robert Nickelsberg produced on behalf of Time magazine and is supplemented by essays by renowned journalists. Robert Nickelsberg worked as a Time magazine contract photographer for nearly thirty years, specializing in political and cultural change in developing countries.