ABSTRACT
U.S. involvement in the 1990 Nicaraguan elections was advertised and sold to the public as a benevolent and impartial contribution that helped the Nicaraguan people exercise their right to choose their political destiny through the ballot. But the US role was in fact blatantly interventionist in nature and was perhaps the most extensive, complex, and sophisticated foreign policy operation the Bush administration undertook in its first year in office. Far from being a departure from US foreign policy, the US electoral intervention project in Nicaragua evolved out of that policy. The creation of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) was part and parcel of the resurgence of intervention abroad and the development of low-intensity conflict doctrines. Before being applied to Nicaragua, the machinery of electoral intervention was tested out by the United States in three "success stories"—the Philippines, Chile, and Panama.
