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Article: Contra Aid
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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CONTRA AID
CONTRA AID.
As President James Earl Carter prepared to leave office in 1980, his administration began funneling money to Nicaraguan dissidents in Honduras who planned to interdict the flow of arms from the Sandinistas (who had overthrown the Somoza family dictatorship after more than forty years of rule) to leftist rebels in El Salvador. Soon after taking office in January 1980, President Ronald Reagan approved National Security Decision Directive 17, which increased aid to these dissidents, a small army of anti-Sandinista guerrillas that became known as the contras.
Over the next nine years the contra numbers grew to nearly twelve thousand soldiers. Working from bases in ...