ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the development of two-track strategies up to the 1982 elections. In fall 1979 Roberto D'Aubuisson and a group of young Salvadorean businessmen met in Guatemala City with Mario Sandoval Alarcon, the founder of the fascist Nationalist Liberation Movement (MLN). Roberto D'Aubuisson was, in his own words, a "civilian collaborator" with the military—the main link between the Armed Forces of El Salvador, the group based in Guatemala and the Miami exiles. By late 1980 the Salvadorean government was heavily dependent on the United States to remain solvent, a situation that would worsen through the decade. From the early 1980s, the guiding philosophy behind the US role came to be known as "KISSSS"—"Keep it simple, sustainable, small, and Salvadorean." The army carried out multiple offensives in Chalatenango, Morazan, San Vicente, and Cuscatlan. In early 1982 the FMLN and the US Embassy agreed on one thing: The army had not achieved one objective.
