A Call to Conscience: The Anti-Contra War Campaign

Abstract

The study of transnational solidarity movements is a relatively new field of historical inquiry. Roger Peace’s recent book is an important contribution to this endeavor. A Call to Conscience examines the US government’s secret war against Nicaragua and the debates within the United States over this policy. This is one of the few works that explores at length the opposition to the Contra War that developed within the United States and the effects that this movement had and did not have. (Disclaimer: I was an active participant in the anti – Contra War movement.)Following the Vietnam War, there was little support within the American public for new US military interventions. When Ronald Reagan came into the presidency he saw the world through the lens of the Cold War. However, the so-called “Vietnam Syndrome” put a limitation on the possible use of overt military force. The answer to this problem was covert wars, the backing of proxy armies to fight our enemies. Thus, from Afghanistan to Angola, secret wars were fought with US money, equipment, and advice but without US troops. However, it was in Nicaragua where this policy was exposed and hotly debated by the American people.While Peace’s book focuses on the 1980s, it does give a short background to the development of US-Nicaraguan relations. Peace briefly describes the Sandinista-led revolution and the response of the US government to it. As he states, “Reluctant acceptance . . . by the Carter administration gave way to vehement rejection” (p. 19). The new Reagan administration was determined to defeat the Sandinistas and supported the formation of the counterrevolutionary armed forces, nicknamed the contras.The main body of the book discusses the development of what Peace defines as the “anti – Contra War campaign” (ACWC). As he notes, the movement was not unified within one organization but “emerged out of progressive U.S. sectors with connections to Latin America along with the post – Vietnam War peace movement” (p. 53). Various organizations, from progressive religious networks like the American Friends Service Committee to peace groups such as the Coalition for a New Foreign and Military Policy, joined with newer organizations like the National Network in Solidarity with the Nicaraguan People (Nicaragua Network) to form the component building blocks of the very decentralized ACWC.Peace gives a year-by-year description of both the Reagan administration contra policies and the ACWC responses. He examines all aspects of the campaign, from the demonstrations and lobbying efforts in Washington to local actions across the United States, from 1981 to the end of the war in 1990. Thus the ACWC is presented with all its strengths and weakness. While it is clear that the ACWC was able to limit some of the US activities against Nicaragua, it was never able to stop the war.Another important point analyzed by Peace is the distinction between those who opposed the Contra War and those who actively supported the Sandinistas. While some organizations and individuals represented a more traditional opposition to war and US military intervention abroad, other organizations, such as the Nicaragua Network and its committees, were active supporters of and had close contacts with the Sandinistas. The Sandinistas worked to develop these ties and encouraged US citizens to visit Nicaragua. Thousands went there to work, to live in the war zones as witnesses, or just to briefly experience revolutionary Nicaragua. Many of these individuals became important activists.However, these political differences meant the existence of many, many different organizations, both on the national and local levels. Across the country hundreds of groups and committees developed. Despite the differences between all these organizations, Peace argues that “the loose construction of the ACWC allowed these networks to coexist and work in the same direction” (p. 116).While he mainly focuses on national organizations and national campaigns, Peace also examines several local committees and campaigns. The move to look beyond Washington is essential in order to show the deep roots this movement was developing. Committees from Florida as well as cities such as Buffalo, New York, and Portland, Oregon, are just a few of the cases he discusses. This is one area of the book that I feel could have been expanded, since local grassroots organizing was the base of the ACWC.A Call to Conscience is not heavy on theory, but it is an excellent narrative on one of the major social movements of the 1980s. It is very well researched and relies on an abundance of sources, ranging from government documents to interviews with over 80 different individuals. All readers, from specialists to the general public, will find it is a very useful book. It is certainly worth consideration for use in any appropriate undergraduate course.