ABSTRACT
The Nicaraguan government was uncertain about the United States. One faction demanded confrontation with the United States and support for revolutions throughout Central America; the other counseled caution. The regime still wanted to maintain relationships with Nicaraguan moderates and international democrats and was willing to compromise to do that. At the same time, the sandinista national liberation front was ready to take some risks to declare its revolutionary credentials. The conspiracy posed the same difficult question for the Nicaraguan moderates who were contacted by Salazar as it did for the United States. Most moderates within and outside Nicaragua hoped for a change in government or at least a change in leadership that would be less attached to the Soviet Union and Cuba and more interested in democracy. As Jimmy Carter left office, the relationship between the United States and the revolutionary government of Nicaragua had been tested over an eighteen-month period.
