BOOKS
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interviewed key figures in Nicaraguan and Central American politics such
as Eden Pastora (the anti-Somoza guerrilla leader who turned against the
Sandinistas); Moises Hassas (a member of the first Sandinista junta); as well
as superpower representatives such as George Schultz; Charles Hill
(former chief of staff in the State Department); Thomas Enders (former
Assistant Secretary of State); John Gavin (U. S. Ambassador to Mexico
during the early years of the Sandinista regime); Roger Fontaine
(National Security Council Latin American specialist); Yuri Povlov
(former head of the Latin America Department in the Soviet Foreign
Ministry); and Eduard Shevardnadze.
This book seriously undermines several tenacious American myths
about Nicaragua. Perhaps the most intensely embraced was that following
the revolution of 1979 Nicaragua came to be governed by a group of
young idealists whose only desire was to uplift the masses, introduce po–
litical democracy, establish independence from the superpowers and steer
clear of dogmatic Marxism (or any kind of Marxism). Miranda recalls that
as early as 1969, he (and his comrades in the movement) read Marx,
Castro and Mao's Little Red Book "which became the militants' pocket
Bible." Thus Humberto Ortega stated that "to be a good Marxist you
have to be a good Sandinista and to be a good Sandinista you have to be a
good Marxist." But as the authors explain, "the Sandinista version of
Marxism provided an intellectual framework for anti-American views al–
ready held."
It was widely believed in the United States that the economic diffi–
culties of Nicaragua were caused entirely by the policies of the United
States, in particular the guerrilla war and the economic embargo. While
the war was an obvious drain on the economy, arguably the mismanage–
ment and wrongheaded economic policies of the government were far
more consequential. About Nicaragua's economy, an East German
economist in 1985 observed "I can't think of any East European economy
as messed up as this one." A more substantial criticism of Nicaragua came
from the official Soviet newspaper
Izvestia
in 1989:
Ambitious and obviously unfeasible long-term projects ... excessive
centralization of management, the wave of confiscations which scared
off private entrepreneurs, corruption among state functionaries, inef–
fective use of foreign aid, and poor discipline at state enterprises - all
this produced serious disruptions in the economy. The rest was ac–
complished by war.
It was also widely held that the United States fomented the civil war
relying on the remnants of the Somoza regime, especially its former mili-
