Nicaragua 1981- A place to fight the Cold War
In 1978-1979 the leftist revolutionary movement the Sandinistas ousted its dictator, Anastasio Somoza. The event coincided with the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan, the collapse of the SALT II agreement, the Iranian Hostage Crisis and the development of Civil War in El Salvador and marked a reigniting of the Cold War.
With a long history of imperialism in the region and the more recent history of the rise of leftist Fidel Castro in Cuba the United States under the Reagan Administration decided that the new government of Nicaragua was an ideal place to demonstrate a new vigilance in the Cold War, it would pursue an offensive war of regime change against Sandinista led Nicaragua.
In the aftermath of the Vietnam War and the controversy surrounding a televised war that resulted in thousands of American casualties the Reagan administration sought to use an indirect method, a covert war in Nicaragua. It used the CIA and other assets to train and supply militants, known as the Contras, that operated in rugged border regions of Nicaragua and even placed sea mines in the Nicaraguan ports.
In 1982 the secret proxy war was reported in the media and this led the United States Congress to pass the Boland Amendment, which barred the Reagan Administration from supplying the Nicaraguan Contras.
Over subsequent years Ronald Reagan, pictured here walking with Vice President George H.W. Bush, presented numerous speeches on the importance of US support for the Contras while the Vice President, CIA and State Department acted centrally in forming US Policy against terrorism and leftism.
The United States continued to fund and supply the Nicaraguan Contras following the Boland Amendment, though, there is no known evidence to prove that top figures in the Executive Branch were aware of such action, NSC staff member Oliver North was engaged in illegally supplying the Contras.
Shifting the Narrative- 1985
The illegal support efforts proved inadequate to accomplish the primary goal, which was the overthrow of the government of Nicaragua. For this reason, the Reagan Administration went on an public relations campaign at the outset of 1985 to shift the conversation over Nicaragua and convince Congress to authorize lethal funding for the Contras.
The claim of communist and the old Cold War rhetoric proved stale and unconvincing to Congress and the majority of Americans. Furthermore the development of more positive relations between Reagan and Gorbachev further invalidated the old Vietnam-era rhetoric of the Cold War.
The 1980s witnessed a rise in state sponsored terrorism from. Because Nicaragua supported the leftist FMLN in the bloody El Salvadoran Civil War Reagan announced in July of 1985 that it was part of a group of illegal outlaw states that acted as state sponsors of terrorism. A state sponsor of terrorism was not owed legitimacy or the legal rights of sovereignty.
As the Reagan Administration increased its hostile rhetoric against Nicaragua it conducted threatening military maneuvers, the Cabana exercises, along with the government of Honduras on the border of Nicaragua.
The military exercises on the border of Nicaragua simulated a US-Honduran invasion of Nicaragua. The actions were highly provocative and coincided with naval operations in the Gulf of Sidra an area of the Libyan coast that it insisted were its own waters.
Provocation: 1986
Just as the naval maneuvers in Libya’s Gulf of Sidra provoked a military engagement with the United States navy so too did the US-Honduran maneuvers. In 1986 the Nicaraguan government launched an offensive against Contra base areas just inside the Honduran border. The United States exercises and the Contras continual violation of Nicaragua sovereignty provoked the Sandinistas, but the Reagan administration presented this as a the smoking gun evidence that Nicaragua was an offensive power that threatened to destabilize the region.
In the summer of 1986 the United States Congress voted to provide lethal military funding for the Nicaraguan Contras. Meanwhile the International Court at the Hague was finding the United States in violation of international law and of Nicaragua’s sovereign rights, it ignore the Hague’s proceedings or its verdict.
Peace
Not long after Congress agreed to fund the Contras shot down a transport aircraft over Nicaragua, and the Sandinistas captured Wisconsin resident and US citizen Eugene Hasenfus. Americans were not to be operating in or above Nicaragua and as the incident developed into a huge international controversy a Congressional investigation ensued. The investigation resulted in revelations that came known as “The Iran-Contra Affair” and brought an end to the US war effort against Nicaragua.
With the Reagan administration sidelined Costa Rica President Oscar Arias Sanchez organized a landmark series of peace talks with his fellow Central American leaders. Arias’ efforts culminated in the Treaty of Esquipulas, one of the landmark peace deals of the Cold War era. The agreement created the framework for an end of the conflict against Nicaragua and represented a testament of the importance of diplomacy over war. The Reagan Administration left embroiled in scandal while Arias earn the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.
