Nicaragua

de National Security Archive (U.S.)

The Nicaragua document collection provides an unparalleled contemporary record of the diplomatic, political, paramilitary and economic developments which turned the small Central American nation of Nicaragua into the most controversial U.S. foreign policy issue of the 1980s. The collection consists of 3,248 cataloged primary source documents totaling approximately 17,500 pages. The documentation covers U.S. policy toward the Nicaraguan revolution, starting with the January 1978 assassination of newspaper publisher Pedro Joaqun̕ Chamorro, an event which sparked the insurrection that culminated in the Sandinista overthrow of the Somoza family dynasty 18 months later, and ending with the Sandinista government's electoral defeat by the U.S.-backed UNO coalition of Violeta Chamorro on February 25, 1990. The collection provides records on all aspects of U.S.-Nicaraguan relations during those 12 years, including: U.S. efforts to orchestrate the end of the Somoza regime and prevent a Sandinista victory, the CIA's Contra war, the congressional debate over aid to the Contras, U.S. economic policy toward Nicaragua and U.S. policy toward the 1990 elections.