ABSTRACT
The Cuban revolution also revealed a successful revolutionary method that could be used by a small but committed nucleus. Catalysts or accelerators of the Nicaraguan revolution, therefore, appear to have varied according to the sector participating. Early in 1978 the reformist Frente Amplio Opositor was formed, only to decline and be replaced in early 1979 as the reunited Sandinista National Liberation Front emerged at the head of a revolutionary coalition of opposition groups. Reasonable surmises about the destiny of the Nicaraguan revolution appear to depend upon two sets of factors. One is the nature and trajectory of the revolution, in particular its leaders' perceptions of its goals and accomplishments. The other factors are external and involve especially the policies of the United States vis-à-vis the Sandinista revolution. Sandinista leaders gave signs in late-1984 interviews that the Nicaraguan revolution had almost completed key elements of its policy, economic, and political foundations.
