ABSTRACT
The Somozas, vehement in their anticommunism, cast Nicaragua in the role of regional gendarme long before the victory of the Cuban revolution. While Nicaragua trained and armed Cuban exiles, Cuba trained and armed Nicaraguan exiles. As the multiclass coalition that made the Nicaraguan revolution began to break down in 1980 and 1981, the extent of Cuban influence in Nicaragua came to be a key issue between the Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional and its domestic opponents. By far the most serious consequences of Cuba's relationship with Nicaragua were international rather than domestic. US relations with Nicaragua were immediately and inevitably swept up in the new conceptualization of the Salvadoran insurgency as a battle in the new cold war. In short, the Reagan administration continued its predecessor's policy of competing with Cuba for influence in Nicaragua. For the Reagan administration, the Nicaraguan revolution and the Sandinistas' subsequent friendship with Cuba raised anew the specter of Soviet subversion in the Western Hemisphere.
