Introduction

In shaping a new independent foreign policy for Nicaragua the Sandinistas were constrained by domestic and international constituencies and realities. For many Nicaraguans the Sandinista-led "Triumph" over dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle in July, 1979 marked the beginning of a new chapter in the historic struggle against foreign domination and political-economic dependence. The Sandinista revolution was, among other things, a reaction to the history of United States (US) -Nicaraguan relations. In 1925 many more marines occupied Nicaragua to quell a civil war after US Secretary of State Frank Kellogg warned of a threat of "Soviet Bolshevism" there. Nicaraguan territory also constituted the heartland of what the US considered its "soft underbelly" region. Nicaragua nevertheless supplied raw materials and markets for the US through the 1970s. Although Nicaragua's revolutionary leaders demonstrated an ideological commitment to structural change, both domestic and foreign pressures regulated the nature and the pace of that change.