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 Legacy of Lies contains previously unpublished black-and-white images that American photographer Robert Nickelsberg produced on behalf of Time magazine and is supplemented by essays by renowned journalists.

Robert Nickelsberg worked as a Time magazine contract photographer for nearly 30 years, specializing in political and cultural change in developing countries. He is the author of Afghanistan – A Distant War, published in 2013 by Prestel, which represents his 25 years of work in Afghanistan. Nickelsberg’s second book, Afghanistan’s Heritage: Restoring Spirit and Stone, done in conjunction with the U.S. Department of State, was published in English, Dari and Pashto in May 2018. In April 2024, Kehrer Verlag published Legacy of Lies, El Salvador 1981-1984, a collection of black and white images shot during the civil war in El Salvador, 1981-1984, for Time magazine. Nickelsberg lives in Brooklyn, New York.