SOF, criticized for its unabashed “anti-leftist” leanings, backing of Nicaraguan “Contra” rebels and recruitment of American mercenaries to train them, had attracted a growing number of readers, many of whom, while too young to have fought in Vietnam, grew up viewing images of it in popular media. The magazine appealed also to the increasing numbers of survivalists who, like Tim, hoped to learn the “tricks of staying alive after the collapse of civilization.”
