THE SANDINISTAS AND THE CONTRAS IN NICARAGUA, 1981–1989 term paper

Nicaragua, a country the size of North Carolina, had been ruled since 1936 by the Somoza family. Between 1936 and 1979, the Somozas acquired personal land holdings in Nicaragua the size of the state of Massachusetts. In 1979 the Sandinista National Liberation Front (Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, or FSLN), the Sandinistas (named for the early twentieth-century Nicaraguan rebel leader, Augusto Sandino), drove Anastasio Somoza from power and took control of Nicaragua.

Immediately the Sandinistas initiated economic, social, and political reforms. The number of hospitals and schools doubled, a large number of private properties were expropriated, and central economic planning was introduced. Daniel Ortega, a key Sandinista leader and a strident Marxist, welcomed close ties with Fidel Castro’s Cuba and the Soviet Union. The newly installed Reagan administration perceived the Sandinistas as rabid Marxists committed to exporting communist revolution throughout Central America. In 1981 Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director William Casey received more than $20 million to begin training an anti-Sandinista force, the Contras, to wage war against the Sandinistas. President Ronald Reagan authorized the use of CIA contingency funds for this purpose. By 1983 the CIA was training 10,000 Contras and, in clear violation of international law, had mined Nicaraguan harbors. In the 1984 Nicaraguan elections, certified to be freely conducted by international observers, the Sandinistas won 63 percent of the vote.

In 1984 Congress substantially cut funding for the CIA training of the Contras. The Reagan administration decided to secure funding for the Contras from foreign governments such as Saudi Arabia and Brunei. Congressional hearings soon revealed that the U.S. government had illegally sold American weapons to Iran to garner funds for the Contras and that top Reagan officials including Assistant Secretary of State Elliot Abrams, National Security Adviser James Poindexter, and Poindexter’s aide, Marine Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, had repeatedly lied to Congress about arms sales to Iran to fund the Contras’ war against the Sandinistas. Embarrassed by these revelations, the Reagan administration had to accept the 1987 peace plan crafted by Costa Rica’s president, Oscar Arias, which brought an end to the fighting. In 1990 free elections were held in Nicaragua. Violeta Chamorro, an outspoken critic of the Sandinistas, was elected president. The eight years of fighting between Sandinistas and Contras resulted in 43,000 Nicaraguan casualties. During this period the United States spent millions of dollars funding the Contras and military establishments in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. The end result was violence and impoverishment for the people of Central America.
Suggestions for Term Papers
1. What made it possible for the guerrilla army of the Sandinistas to defeat Somoza and take power in 1979?
2. To what extent were the Sandinistas Marxists and their revolution a Marxist revolution?
3. Read Jeane Kirkpatrick’s article “Dictatorships and Double Standards” (see Suggested Sources) and write a paper assessing its influence on Reagan administration policy in Nicaragua.
4. During the “Iran-Contra” Congressional hearings Oliver North became a media celebrity. Determine whether he should be considered a “hero” of the Contra cause. Provide reasons for your position.
5. Read about the experiences of the Contras fighting against the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. Write a paper evaluating the tactics and strategy they used.
6. How durable were the Sandinistas’ reforms? How many of their reforms remain in contemporary Nicaragua?

Research Suggestions

In addition to the boldfaced items, look under the entries for “The Guatemalan Coup, 1954” (#50), “Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution, 1959” (#57), “The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962” (#64), and “The Overthrow of Salvador Allende in Chile, 1973” (#76). Search under Cold War and Reagan Doctrine. SUGGESTED SOURCES

Primary Sources

Borge, Tomás, et al. Sandinistas Speak. New York: Pathfinder, 1982. These documents show why the early revolution was so popular.

Chamorro, Violeta Barrios de. Dreams of the Heart. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996. A candid memoir by the former president of Nicaragua.

Gilbert, Dennis, and David Block, eds. Sandinistas: Key Documents. Ithaca: Cornell University Latin American Studies Program, 1990. A good insight into the economic and political problems the Sandinistas faced.

Leiken, Robert S., and Barry Rubin, eds.The Central American Crisis Reader. New York: Summit Books, 1987. The best starting point for documents on the FSLN, the Contras, and U.S. policy.

Secondary Sources

Burns, E. Bradford. At War in Nicaragua: The Reagan Doctrine and the Politics of Nostalgia. New York: Harper and Row, 1987. The Reagan administration accused Burns of spreading “disinformation” about Nicaragua. His book is a powerful indictment of U.S. policy.

Dickey, Christopher. With the Contras: A Reporter in the Wilds of Nicaragua. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987. The best firsthand account of the CIA’s guerrilla fighters in Nicaragua.

Kagan, Robert. A Twilight Struggle: American Power and Nicaragua, 1977–1990. New York: The Free Press, 1996. The most authoritative study available.

Kinzer, Stephen. Blood Brothers: Life and War in Nicaragua. York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1991. Based on thirteen years of living in Nicaragua, this is an informed view of daily life under the Sandinistas.

Kirkpatrick, Jeane. Dictatorships and Double Standards: Rationalism and Reason in Politics. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982. The lead article in this collection inspired President Reagan’s Central American policy and his support for the Contras.

Lafeber, Walter. Inevitable Revolutions: The United States in Central America. 2nd ed. New York: W. W. Norton, 1993. A reliable study by a premier diplomatic historian.

LeoGrande, William M. Our Own Backyard: The United States in Central America, 1977–1992. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998. An exhaustive study of U.S. policy in Central America. Excellent bibliography.

Pastor, Robert A. Condemned to Repetition: The United States and Nicaragua. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987. A careful account illustrating the long roots of U.S. policy vis-à-vis Nicaragua.
World Wide Web

“The National Security Archive.” http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv. A nongovernmental collection with documents on Nicaragua.