ABSTRACT
The political and military conflicts surrounding the small nation of El Salvador are center stage in the American public mind. Nicaragua stares across a chasm of successful popular revolution at the rightist regimes of Guatemala and El Salvador. Much of Central America's current political upheaval can be traced to the development of agricultural export commodities, the land-based oligarchies that produce them, and the accompanying military regimes required to enforce the land seizures and exploitation of cheap labor necessary to sustain profits. The crisis in Central America is not merely regional; it has political and economic implications for the rest of the Americas. American nations with a geopolitical interest in Central American regional stability are being drawn into the picture. In addition to the growing hostility of Central Americans to US military intervention in their region, the US government has been stymied by a growing reluctance on the part of the American people to repeat the ignominy of the Vietnam War.
