The Real Contra War

By Timothy C. Brown

Book Overview

The Contra War and the Iran-Contra affair that shook the Reagan presidency were center stage on the U.S. political scene for nearly a decade. According to most observers, the main Contra army, or the Fuerza Democr tica Nicarag ense (FDN), was a mercenary force hired by the CIA to oppose the Sandinista socialist revolution.

The Real Contra War demonstrates that in reality the vast majority of the FDN's combatants were peasants who had the full support of a mass popular movement consisting of the tough, independent inhabitants of Nicaragua's central highlands. The movement was merely the most recent instance of this peasantry's one-thousand-year history of resistance to those they saw as would-be conquerors.

The real Contra War struck root in 1979, even before the Sandinistas took power and, during the next two years, grew swiftly as a reaction both to revolutionary expropriations of small farms and to the physical abuse of all who resisted. Only in 1982 did an offer of American arms persuade these highlanders to forge an alliance with former Guardia anti-Sandinista exiles--those the outside world called Contras.

Relying on original documents, interviews with veterans, and other primary sources, Brown contradicts conventional wisdom about the Contras, debunking most of what has been written about the movement's leaders, origins, aims, and foreign support.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0806132523
• ISBN13: 9780806132525
• Release Date: March 2001
• Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
• Length: 350 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

heroes silenciados

La odicea del pueblo nicaraguense ha sido de explotacion,terror y muerte,recuerdo cuando estudiaba en nicaragua,recien despues del 16 de julio,agosto 1979,mi padre organizo una busqueda de restos humanos en un lugar de las segobias montanas de nicaragua,su padre ( mi abuelo),junto con aproximadamente 95 personas casi todos familias fueron asesinados por la genocida Guardia Nacional de Nicaragua,enterrados en fosas comunes en las montanas silenciosas de las segovias,"ninos,mujeres enbarasadas,ancianos...su delito,muchos inocentes,otros como mi abuelo,por luchar por la livertad del pueblo de nicaragua... Los verdaderos y primeros cobatientes o contras,fueron hombres honestos,valientes heroes ..que vieron antes del triunfo de la revolucion sandinista el camino que sus dirigentes maximos estavan tomando,caminos equivocados rumbo al marxismo leninisno comunista,..hombres que no aceptaron las ofertas de trofeos de guerra que los comandantes ortegas y compania ofrecieron a muchos comandantes de zonas despues de la guerra (haciendas de los Zomosas...etc...),Algunos heros murieron misteriosamente como Carlos Fonseca Amador, EL TIGRE,EL DANTO ...TODOS ellos fueron hombres honestos humildes pero de gran valor MORAL, Hacia su Nacion,Gracias Mr TImothy C brown,todavia puede seguir escriviendo sobre estos hombres y su biografia...atte juan martinez

Beyond left and right -- the revolt of the 'indios puros'

When career American diplomat Timothy Brown was assigned to oversee the Contra war against the Sandinistas in 1987, he believed, along with everybody else, that the counterrevolution had been started by defeated Somocistas with arms and money from Ronald Reagan. The war had, by then, been going on for five years, he thought. In 1990, when the Sandinistas were voted out of office, the Contras were disarmed by an agency of the Organization of American States. OAS was astonished to find itself dealing with more than 10,000 fighters -- they called themselves Comandos, not Contras -- and 80,000 unarmed supporters. These could not possibly have been ex-Somocistas, as there had never been so many. But it did not seem to occur to anyone else but Brown to ask, who were they? Brown, now at the Hoover Institution, surprised himself with the answer. Contrary to the "Black Legend" of the Contras as a small band of mercenaries, Brown discovered that the counterrevolution was started by Chibcha Indians who make up 52 percent of Nicaragua's population, that the revolt started in 1979, that it continued for almost three years before outsiders and ex-Somocistas joined and that it had the unanimous support of the highlanders. "Alone among the major antagonists in Nicaragua's recent wars, the MILPAS (the name the rebels gave their combat units) of 1979-82 had no foreign military support. . . . The much-feared and widely demonized 'Contras' turned out to be only poor dirt farmers from Nicaragua's equivalent of Appalachia, historically marginalized but insistently independent mountain 'hillbillies.' " Brown traces this revolt back more than a thousand years, to the collision of Nahua Indians expanding from Mexico to Nicaragua's Pacific lowlands and Chibchas expanding from South America to the highlands. Though the Chibchas were defined out of existence following a revolt in 1881, when it became national policy in Nicaragua to claim that there were no more "indios," only mestizos and "espanioles," the Chibchas themselves knew who they were. In oral interviews, Brown discovered that the anti-Sandinistas identified themselves as "indios" or even "indios puros," versus the mestizos and "whites" of the lowlands. The question arises: Can the analysis of a Reaganista be trusted? The answer is yes. Brown conducted a sociological-ethnological inquiry using standard academic research protocols, and the documents are on deposit at Hoover for inspection. Some of the most important points can be cross-checked with outside, even with Sandinista publications. Of all the proofs Brown offers, the most extraordinary and persuasive is the question of the Literacy Brigades. We know from many studies of peasants that in societies divided between literate and illiterate, peasants will extend a great measure of goodwill to a regime that teaches their children to read, even if the regime is harsh otherwise. Observers as various as the historian Alexander Werth writing of Stalinist Russia

Research vs. Propaganda

In Nicaragua, as in the United States, there are still holdout areas of Marxists, still waiting for the Great Revolution to show the world that communism should be the way. In Nicaragua, it is in Leon where there are still murals of Daniel Ortega and the Sandinistas on many buildings. In the US, it's places like Seattle and college faculties. But for those who don't find it "reactionary" to hold the belief that communists are the bad guys, this book is a great source. Instead of still fighting the war for the Sandinistas, this book offers a well-researched and documented history. Having a brother that is married to a Nicaraguan from Corinto, where the CIA mined the harbor, it has been surprising to learn how much the majority of Nicaraguans appreciated Reagan's decision to fight the communists in their country. For those who don't remember, when the Sandinistas were forced to hold elections, the US media and most of the world had predicted a resounding Sandinista victory. They are still bitter that they were wrong, and that the Nicaraguan populace kicked their fellow leftists out of office. For those interested in a rational view of the Contra war and the Sandinistas, this book and Glenn Garvin's "Everybody had his own Gringo" are the best bets. For those who still aren't sure which side to believe, do a little research on what the Sandinistas did to the Moskito indians. And to see who it was in the US that supported, and still supports, the Sandinistas as well as Castro's dictatorship, read "Covert Cadre" by S. Steven Powell.

Even the 1st editorial review couldn't resist

I'd like to refer to this:"Brown makes an interesting case, but also neglects certain issues. For instance, while he writes in detail on Sandinista human rights abuses against the highlanders, he has nothing to say on Contra abuses except that they did occur. Without such discussion, this remains a partial, though important, account of the complex phenomenon of the Contras. B & w illus."In the movie Braveheart, who were the good guys and who were the bad guys? Did Wallace commit abuses against the English? Yes. Was it anything like the systematic oppression and brutality offered by the English? No. This book is about peasants who were fighting for their freedom. Read it, and you will get a glimps of what really went on in Nicaragua.

Finally, a true account of the contras

For years, the Media in the United States has portrayed the Contras in a very negative light, focusing on half-truths and lies. While the Sandinistas were murdering thousands and thousands of people, and exiling over 1/2 million people out of the country, the Contras became Nicaragua's first line of defense against this abuse. The American media, looking to hurt Mr. Reagan, who supported this freedom fighting group, engaged in a massive campaign to destroy them. The fact is that a large portion of the Contras were FORMER SANDINISTAS, and the majority opposed the Somoza dictatorship. These people felt betrayed that what was supposed to be a democratic revolution in 1979 turned out to be a bait-and-switch communist take-over. The vast majority of the contras were fighting to once and for all liberate the country from dictatorship and get out of the battlezone between east and west that was destroying the country. They came from all walks of life. From Mr. Calero, who led the contras without a wish for political office after the conflict, to the thousands of Mizquito indians who led the fight in the Atlantic coast.What is amazing is that they won, but they have never been acclaimed as winners in the US media. Nicaragua has been a democracy for the last 13 years. As the contra detractors claimed that Mr. Calero wanted to become the next dictator, he graciously vowed completely out of politics, as did comandante zero and other heros of the resistance. Those freedom fighters have let the democratic process work, and have watched as the country takes root in democracy, and fights on to get rid of the legacy of the last two dictatorships: heavy debt, poverty, and corruption. It's about time someone told the truth!