This selection of conference papers is touted as “a unique forum, perhaps the only one so far, for an open and balanced discussion of all points of view on the Nicaraguan crisis” (p. xi). Mere inclusion, however, does not ensure balance. Of 13 chapters, 10 are openly critical of the Sandinista government or supportive of Reagan administration policy. The book’s claim of having transcended an ideological perspective is, thus, disingenuous.
There are two essays by Jiri and Virginia Valenta and Arturo Cruz, Sr. on the Leninist character of the FSLN. The Contra leader Alfredo César and a disaffected Sandinista official methodically denounce FSLN policies. Arturo Cruz, Jr. looks at the contradictions between the Sandinistas’ Leninist political agenda and a state capitalist economic model.
Three essays do not share the assumptions of the majority. The most useful is by Margaret Crahan, who offers a balanced and well-documented discussion of human rights and civil liberties, while defending the legitimacy of the Nicaraguan government under international law. Esperanza Durán presents a nonpolemical treatment of the Contadora process, and a Sandinista sympathizer blames Nicaragua’s problems on the regional socioeconomic crisis and U. S. intervention.
Of the four remaining essays, three are basically cold war analyses of the Leninist Nicaragua threat, and one describes Western European options in the context of accommodating Washington’s regional goals. The most challenging is Vernon Aspaturian’s on Nicaragua and the Soviet bloc. Valenta concludes with a summary of the authors’ views and reassertion of the book’s major theme: that Nicaragua’s crisis originates in domestic Leninism and pro-Soviet foreign relations. A useful appendix of political documents follows.
The collection has several weaknesses. First, the title is misleading: only one essay is dedicated to internal conflicts; the nature of FSLN relations with civil society and the church receives only passing reference. Second, there is no serious critique of the U. S. role. Third, the book is already dated. A sometimes self-righteous tone, as well as repeated charges of Sandinista duplicity and Nicaraguan/Soviet expansionism, ring hollow after the revelations of the Iran-Contra scandal and Oliver North trial, the relative success of the Arias peace plan, and the turnabout in Soviet foreign and military policy.
While the specialist will find little new here, the work does provide an alternative political perspective to much currently published on Central America. The book’s chief virtue is that it broadens our understanding of the ideological and national-security framework of the Reagan-era officials and Nicaraguan opposition figures who participated in the most contentious U. S. foreign-policy issue of the 1980s.
