Contra solidarity: revolution and counterrevolution in the united states and nicaragua

This article explains how the Contra War was shaped by interaction between revolutionaries and counterrevolutionaries both before and after Nicaragua's 1979 revolution. In successfully overthrowing the Somoza government, the Frente Sandinista de Liberaci & oacute;n Nacional (FSLN) built a multilayered revolutionary coalition out of the fractured Nicaraguan politics created by the Cold War developmental state. In response to the FSLN's successful solidarity politics, the US government, from the beginning of the revolution, through the Contra War in the 1980s, applied a diverse set of tactics that drew inspiration from the successes of Nicaragua's revolutionary practice in order to undermine the revolution. This adaptive response helped radicalise Nicaragua's revolution, widened support for the Contra War, despite adverse US and global public opinion, and made possible the unravelling of the Iran-Contra Affair.