Trenton, N.J.: Red Sea Press, 2003

Taking on the Superpowers opens with my first visit to Eritrea in 1976 when I slipped into the colony’s besieged capital, Asmara, and witnessed the assassination of a top-ranking Ethiopian official and a civilian massacre carried out in reprisal. My front-page account in The Washington Post broke Ethiopia’s long-standing information blockade. I went on to report on the radical social transformation underway in guerilla-held areas, the near defeat of Ethiopia’s American-backed army, the intervention of the Soviet Union on behalf of Ethiopia, the liberation movement’s strategic retreat in 1978, my journey behind the battle lines the following year, and the start of a protracted stalemate that would continue for a decade.