Central America: U.S. policy and its critics

Edward Gonzalez

Expert InsightsPublished 1986

This paper advises the present administration to consider a three-front approach to the Nicaraguan problem: (1) Security concerns must be given primacy and decoupled from the issue of social change in Nicaragua and the rest of Central America. (2) Ideological goals or preferences should become secondary and be cast in defensive terms. (3) The United States should exhaust all political avenues in seeking a peaceful solution to the Nicaraguan problem, but it must also back its diplomacy with strong security measures and military pressures. The United States could thus head off a potentially more adverse position in the future, buttress the Contadora process in developing effective procedures to assure regional stability, and oblige the Sandinistas to consider the costs of endangering Central American security and risking U.S. retaliation rather than working out a peaceful solution.

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Document Details

  • Copyright: RAND Corporation
  • Availability: Web Only
  • Year: 1986
  • Pages: 31
  • Document Number: P-7216

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Chicago Manual of Style

Gonzalez, Edward, Central America: U.S. policy and its critics. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 1986. https://www.rand.org/pubs/papers/P7216.html.
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