There was the situation in Nicaragua where the Sandinistas had taken over a couple of years earlier. There was a civil war going on in El Salvador and there was a similar situation in Guatemala. So Honduras was in a rather precarious geographic position indeed.
Honduras is strongly anti-Communist, maintains no diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, and has provided vital support for United States-backed rebels fighting to overthrow the Sandinistas in neighboring Nicaragua.
I think for the U.S. government the Sandinistas represented a threat to their dominance of Latin America.
All right, come on in! We’ll meet you man to man. You will kill us, but you will pay for it.
The average American doesn't know the difference between a Contra and a caterpillar or between a Sandinista and a sardine.
The U.S. embargo imposed on Nicaragua, rather than weakening the Sandinistas, actually maintained them in power.
The Sandinistas are dedicated Communists, and if they are going to make a compromise with democracy, it's going to be under pressure.
During the 1980s, international interest in the Nicaraguan war was intense. No conflict since the Spanish civil war had provoked such passion around the world. It was a classic good-versus-evil war.
The Sandinistas are a tough bunch of guys, with a fabulous amount of Soviet Bloc equipment and Soviet Bloc advisers.
