Stephen Kinzer's Role In Nicaragua

The Spanish-American War was considered short lived and relatively mild in terms of American casualties compared to the many wars that our nation has fought. However, it served as a historical marker that set the imperialistic momentum of our nation. It played a significant role in our nation’s strategic move towards acquiring trade routes and further strengthened our naval power. Throughout my research paper I will touch on what led to the Cuban revolution against Spain, America’s political climate at the time, and why our nation eventually decided to intervene and aid the Cubans in their fight for independence.

On the narrow isthmus known as Central America, between the world’s two greatest oceans, Nicaragua has been marked by endless years of political turmoil, social tension and economic dismay. The turmoil’s that have shaken the country make it plausible to believe that by some metaphysical law, Nicaraguan politics have accommodated to nature’s tantrums. Like its diverse, rugged and seismically active geology, the country’s politics have been irregular, impulsive and often explosive (Pastor, 15). The Nicaraguan election of February 25, 1990 represents the country’s attempt to break from its turbulent political past and pursue economic and political stability through the establishment of a democracy. The

Q7: The similarities between United States, Cuba, and Nicaragua is that they were all involved had leadership during the times when they were in war. United States had President Truman to lead the country and so that the country won't fall apart. Cuba had Fulgencio Batista as their dictator. Anastasio Somoza was the dictator for Nicaragua. Cuba and Nicaragua had dictator to lead their countries. They thought that they had everything planned out, but they didn't. The United States originally thought they would be neutral through World War II. That didn't help because when Japan attacked United States in Pearl Harbor. United States needed to do something about it. Cuba wanted to improve the economy, but they couldn't because Fulgencio kept putting

Nicaragua is surrounded by its beautiful nature including its incredible history. The name ‘Nicaragua’ came from a chief named Nicarao. He was chief to a digenous tribe that settled in Lake Nicaragua around late 1400’s and early 1500’s. In 1524 Hernandez de Cordoda was the first Spanish settler to live in the region of Granada on Lake Nicaragua and Leon Managua. Nicaragua gained its independents from Spain in 1821, making the country part of the Mexican Empire and becoming a member of independent Central American. Nicaragua became an independent republic.

stated the necessity of the Soviet Union and Cuba to become allies, and this move would also influence many countries in Latin America to become allies with the Soviet Union rather than the U.S and the West.

The Iran Contra affair is historically defined as the “Reagan administration scandal that involved the sale of arms to Iran in exchange for its efforts to secure the release of hostages in Lebanon and the redirection of the proceeds of those sales to the Nicaraguan Contras.” As the Nicaraguan counterrevolutionaries, known as the Contras, began their efforts to retaliate against the Socialist Sandinista Regime, American government forces stepped in to support the Contra cause in a hope to support the world-wide elimination of Communism. To understand the entire history of the scandal, many individuals, groups, policies, and deals must be researched and put together to tell the complete history of the Iran Contra affair.

Also, the growing presence of the Soviets and Cuba in Nicaragua escalated the cold war and in order to ‘draw the line” the Reagan administration “doubled economic aid for El Salvador to a hundred and forty four million dollars” (pg 40). According to Danner, “the priorities of American Policy in El Salvador had become unmistakable” (pg 41).Second, The American government was “opposed to dispatching American combat forces to Central America” (pg 22) and in order to prevent another Nicaragua, Congress agreed to “reform” the Salvadoran Army by financing, training and arming its troops to fight the FMLN. As Danner notes, “the Americans had stepped forward to fund the war, but were unwilling to fight it”. Third, the Monterrosa led Atlacatl led batallion through American funding descended in El Mozote with “the latest M-16’s, M-60 machines guns, 90 millimeter recoilless rifles, and 60- and 81 millimeter mortars”(pg 39) and with a list of names massacred an entire village because “communism was cancer”(pg 49). The U.S. government was clearly responsible for the Massacre at El Mozote because without the funding, supporting, and training of El Salvador troops the war would have been tilted in the guerillas favor as they had managed to hold the disorganized army in certain areas. In contrast to neighboring departments El Mozote and its inhabitants of born-again Christians did not fit in as guerilla sympathizers. In fact, the training at American hands

The Soviet Union placed missiles with the nuclear capabilities in Cuba that “is capable of striking Washington, D.C., the Panama Canal, Cape Canaveral, Mexico City or any other city in the southeastern part of the United States, in Central America or in the Caribbean area” (document 7b). In response, the United States established a air and naval blockade around the island to prevent Fidel Castro from receiving more deadly weapons (document 7a). The U.S. also maintained close surveillance of Cuba and its military actions (document 7b). In Nicaragua, the Sandinistas established and strong military force in the country to combat non-communist after the revolution. The EPS (the Sandinista People’s Army/Ejército Popular Sandinista) and the PA (Sandinista Police/Policía Sandinista) were trained personnels from Cuba Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union (document 8a). However, Violeta Chamorro challenged the Sandinista Nicaragua’s presidential election so democracy and freedom could be brought to Nicaragua. The lives of Latin Americans changed due to the cold War. Some lost their privacy, other lost their

In Empire’s Workshop, Greg Grandin argues that the United States engineered a destructive domestic fusion of religious fundamentalism, hawkish neoconservatism, and nationalism - to justify it’s engagement in a jingoistic, self-serving foreign policy in Latin America. Furthermore, his work details the preemptive clash against perceived communist elements, and places the ideological disagreements regarding private-property, as the primary mover in US actions. By examining the Guatemalan coup of 1954, which Grandin describes as the Central Intelligence Agency’s “first full-scale covert operation” in Latin America, we can assess the prototypical reasoning behind US intervention. Moreover, the thorough assessment of the motivations of American

Reading the book Harvest of Empire by Juan Gonzalez, has been very informative to me and has changed my perspective on U.S. foreign policy. Each account of the families from the different Latino countries has similar underlying trends that can be found because of the U.S. involvement in their countries. Every single instance of U.S. involvement in Latin American countries seems to evolve around the idea of greed and profit. The U.S. is like a business that only cares about the income of money and not about the morality of their actions. On top of all the injustice the U.S. government has employed, they don’t bother to own up to their mistakes and they tend to sweep their involvement under the rug. For example, the Iran-Contra scandal mentioned in the book of the Reagan administration was the result of using drug money from Iran to buy weapons for the Nicaraguan contra rebels against the Sandinista government of Nicaragua. It infuriates me that the U.S. would support a dictator that suppresses the rights of its citizens and all the while they want to take down the established, popular Sandinista government. The U.S. wants to do all this so that the new government will support U.S. interests in Nicaragua. When the scandal was uncovered, all Reagan could say was “I’m sorry” and “It won’t happen again” even though our involvement had the result of many lives lost in that war/rebellion. Unfortunately, this theme did not only occur in Nicaragua

“The issue is our effort to promote democracy and economic well-being in the face of Cuban and Nicaraguan aggression, aided and abetted by the Soviet Union. It is definitely not about plans to send American troops into combat in Central America. Each year, the Soviet Union provides Cuba with $4 billion in assistance, and it sends tons of weapons to foment revolution here in our hemisphere…Central America is a region of great importance to the United States. And it is so close: San Salvador is closer to Houston, Texas, than Houston is to Washington, DC. Central America is America. It's at our doorstep, and it's become the stage for a bold attempt by the Soviet Union, Cuba, and Nicaragua to install communism by force throughout the

While the Cold War does not mark a significant distinction from US involvement in Latin America pre-Cold War, the inclusion of ideology in US foreign policy decisions did mark a change in attitudes and focus. While US policy can be described as rational to a certain point, the Cuban dilemma caused an irrational fear in US foreign policy makers to avoid a second-Cuba. The fear of a “second Cuba” can be seen in the various interventions by the US in Latin America during this period.

The United States has been involved with funding and aiding Nicaragua in many different situations though the years after the Somoza assassination. From the devastating earthquake, to rebel Contra groups, the American government has tried relentlessly to spread capitalism in Nicaragua. The FSLN overthrew Anastasio Somoza Debayle in 1979, ending the Somoza dynasty, and established a revolutionary government in its place. Following their seizure of power, the Sandinistas have been successfully in control of the Nicaraguan government since 1979.

government, while under the Reagan administration, saw the Sandinista’s rise to power as a threat to the security of the U.S. The reason the U.S. felt threatened by the rise of Sandinistas is due to the U.S.S.R. supporting the Sandinistas. The U.S. feared that Nicaragua would become a puppet state for the Kremlin, which would then destabilize South America in an attempt to push the U.S. out and help the U.S.S.R. get one step closer to becoming the singular hegemon. In an attempt to prevent all of this, the U.S. decided that it must act in its own best interest, which is called self-help, which meant that the U.S. needed to remove the Sandinistas, since the Sandinistas were so friendly with the

The USSR had recently funded a communications site on Nicaraguan soil to help them communicate with other socialist nations. With a rising fear of the USSR and other socialist nations, the US immediately accused it of being a spy base. Not shortly afterwards the US began to take action against Nicaragua by issuing an economic blockade. Because the Nicaraguan economy relied so heavily on imports, this had a profound effect and contributed to the collapse of the Nicaraguan economy. “It was impossible to spend even a day in Nicaragua without becoming aware of the huge and unrelenting pressure being exerted on the country by the giant standing on the northern front” (p.24).