ABSTRACT
The United States (US) decided to force the pace of events for two reasons: first, the killing in Nicaragua was weighing on the Administration. As Anastasio Somoza let it be known that he was only staying until the US indicated the circumstances of his departure, the weight grew heavier. Second, as the Guard's arsenal and petroleum stocks shrank and the Sandinistas' stockpile seemed inexhaustible, the Administration began to fear a complete collapse of the National Guard, which would leave the sandinista national liberation front beholden to no one and restrained by no one. Even if the US had developed and implemented a sound strategy to preserve some portion of the Guard, it is by no means certain that it would have succeeded. Not only had the corruption and atrocities of the Guard transformed some of the nation's youth into Sandinistas, it had embittered many Nicaraguans.
