Not condemned to repetition: the United States and Nicaragua

Setting the Stage

Declining Dictators, Rising Revolutions

The Ghost of Cuba Past

The Cuban Drama in Seven Stages

Distinguishing Succession Crises from Revolutions

The Thesis in Brief: The Three Challenges of Nicaragua

A Fractured History

The Subterranean Rhythm

U.S. Entry into the Caribbean

The First Somoza

Democrats vs. Dictators vs. Communists

Recurring Themes

Roads to Revolution

The Brothers Somoza

The United States: From Identification to Neutrality

The Sandinistas

The Revolution before the Revolution

The Succession Crisis, 1977-1979

Human Rights and Nicaraguan Wrongs

Human Rights Policy: Theory and Application

The Impact on Nicaragua

The Death of Chamorro

The First Policy Review

The Carter Letter

The Takeover of the National Palace

The Frontier

To Mediate or Not to Mediate: The Policy Question

Motive for Movement

The National Security Decision-Making Process

Behind the Mediation

Bombing the Bunker

Divergent Perspectives of the Mediation

Back In the Middle

The (First) Mediation

Building Bridges

The Plebiscite

Anti-Climax

Sanctions and Their Impact

Marching to Different Drummers

Withdrawal Pains

Unfriendly Neighbors

The Calm and the Storm

Secret Mission to Panama

A New U.S. Plan

In Different Directions

The Reluctant Arbiter

The OAS Meeting

The Decision Not to Intervene

Two Pillars

The Torrijos Conspiracy

Denouement

Translating the Plan into Panamanian

Preserving the Guard: The Formaldehyde Solution

The Last Days

Exit

Relating to the Revolution

Carter: Mutual Respect and Suspicion

The Carter Administration's Lessons

The Benefit of the Doubt

The Distribution and Purposes of Power

Relating to the United States

The American People Debate Nicaragua

Carter: Mutual Temptations

Changing Internal and International Relationships

Companeros and Contras

Salazar and the Counterrevolutionary Temptation

El Salvador and the Revolutionary Temptation

The State of Relations

Reagan: Mutual Resentment

The Reagan Administration's Lessons

The Fork in the Road

Constraints: Congress and Contadora

The Fruit of Resentment

Reagan: Mutual Obsessions

Deepening the Commitment

A Pause for Elections

The Reagan Doctrine on National Liberation

Contadora and Its Offspring

Home to Roost

An Assessment of the Politics and the Policy

The Democratic Transition and Nicaragua's Lessons

The Central American Initiative

Peace Plans

Judgment Day

New Faces

The Prospects for Reconciliation

The Second Mediation: Defining the Rules for a Free Election

The Alignment of the Planets

The Parameters of the Election

The Washington Connection

Registering Voters and Political Earthquakes

Reconciling Nicaraguans and Observers

The Invasion and Its Aftermath

The Transfer

Midnight Meeting

The First Days of the Transition

The Wayward Path to the Transfer

Trading Places

The Struggles Among Brothers and Branches

Lessons from Three Challenges: Succession, Revolution, and Democracy

The Patterns of Policy

Explaining Continuity and Change in U.S. Policy

The Democratic Option

Missed Opportunities and Lessons of Nicaragua.