Tracking American involvement in Nicaragua.

     Arguably the biggest headache that any US president along with how to approach the civil rights movement was American foreign policy in combating communism from the 1950's to 90's. More specifically, how was the US going to deal with its policy of containment against the spread of communism? The American people, put the pressure on its current president during the cold war era to contain communism. Each American president created their own foreign policy. The debacle in Nicaragua that led to Reagan's lowest point can be traced back to 1926.


Contra's background: 
     Between 1936 and 1979, Nicaragua was lead by a conservative party. The Somoza family held brutal control through that period.  In fact, they held the presidency for 30 of the 43 years but because of their deep pockets and influence, really had control over the government because of their control of the National Guard. The National Guards use can be traced back to 1926 when the US-backed Adolfo Dias, sending aid and US marines.

US Marines in 1927

Sandinistas: 

     The Sandinista National liberation front was a left-leaning group that many considered to be communist, that rebelled against the conservative government that had been controlled by the Somoza family for decades. They saw themselves as "professional revolutionaries" that somewhat identified with Lenin/ Marxist political and economic systems. 

Why did the US originally get involved? And how did it continue 

Jimmy Carter's main foreign policy depended on human rights. He based a lot of his arguments on them including the one for funding the Contras. His reasoning for funding them was that he didn't want to have to deal with another Cuba in the sense that the Sandinistas could take control and sever relationships. And of course, a communist government could also attract the Russians back in any way while the cold war was still going on. 

     Carter and his staff pulled out of their support mainly because the Vietnam war had recently concluded and the American public was not going to put up with another commitment to a 3rd world country that seemingly had little effect on them. They felt that the issue could escalate in a snowball fashion similar to Vietnam. Carter, however, claimed that his reasoning was that the government was violating human rights. This actually escalated the conflict in Nicaragua as human rights improved but the Sandinistas were upset because it was creating a tyranny where he created a new constitution that allowed him to rule until 1981. A big businessman was also upset that the government wasn't promoting enough business and had made the nations political parties insignificant under the Somoza party.  

Well armed and organized Contras

In the end...
 Reagan continued to support the Contras in order to continue American communist containment policies that lead to the Iranian Contra scandal.
Sandinistas: 
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