The current policy of the Reagan administration is designed to overthrow the Sandinist system in Nicargua. The Nicaraguan revolution has produced a fascinating model of Socialism, in which the
Sandinistas are trying to combine elements of pragmatic Marxism, Catholic humanism and revolutionary nationalism. In the first three years after the revolution, the Sandinist government was fairly successful and the country made enormous social and political progress. In 1983 Nicaragua entered a severe systemic crisis, which has been aggravated by the economic and military policy of the Reagan administration. This paper argues that the US counter strategy is based upon a number of contradictions and inconsistencies inherent in the Sandinist system.
The main targets of the US strategy are the social accomplishments that provided the FSLN’s
popularity among the rural population, as well as the middle-class upon whose co-operation the
success of the Sandinista model depends. The US strategy consists of three components: a) economic
sanctions, b) overt and covert military threat, and c) additional supportive policy measures.
This paper is a preliminary analysis offering suggestions and direction for future research.
next to an author's name indicates that all files or directories associated with their ETD are accessible from the Virginia Tech campus network only.
![[VT]](http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/images/ETD-db/restricted.gif)
