Praise for the Previous Edition
"Condemned to Repetition is the first extensive insider's account of U.S. policy-making toward Nicaragua during the crucial four-year period that began in 1977 ..."
Washington Post Book World
"(Pastor) is dispassionate and thorough, letting the chips fall where they will... (he) does an excellent job of demonstrating how and why the United States has been 'condemned to repetition in its behavior toward Latin America. He raises issues that should be at the center of any foreign policy debate ..."
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"There is ... much here that will interest anyone who has ever wondered how our foreign policy is really made."
Wall Street Journal
"a valuable account"
The Economist
"straightforward and honest"
Shirley Christian
The New Republic
"A meticulously documented story ... (Pastor) shows how all of the actors, from Cuba and Nicaragua to the U.S. and its Latin allies, acted in ways that made their nightmares come true ... his book contains enough solid insight and information ... to help readers understand what worked, what failed, and why."
The Christian Science Monitor
"Out of this very interesting and honest book, I would single one highly ironic section. Fidel Castro repeatedly urged Sandinistas to avoid the mistakes he had made ... How are we to learn from history when it is Castro saying 'no more Cubas'?"
Newsday
"... by far the best study to date on the early years of the Sandinista revolution ... (Pastor) managed to break free from the sterile polemics which have characterized recent debates over Central American policies, and provides the reader with fascinating, informative and frequently provocative insights into the dilemmas of policy formulation and implementation ... He combines this insider's view of developments with massive research into available published and documentary sources, and interviews with key actors on all sides of the conflict. For this, and much more, Condemned to Repetition qualifies as must reading for anyone seriously interested in U.S.-Latin American relations."
Richard Millett
Caribbean Review
"This book is essential reading on U.S. policy making toward Nicaragua in the Carter and Reagan years ... Pastor Sidesteps the pitfalls of memoirs; he admits mistakes, including his own, and presents a well reasoned, critical analysis useful to both generalists and specialists."
Kenneth E. Sharpe
Political Science Quarterly
"a clear, well-written, and fascinating account of the evolution of U.S. policy towards Nicaragua ... required reading for anyone wishing to understand the motives and outcomes of U.S. policy."
Herald Muoz
Hemisphere
"very good: detailed, dramatic, and well-written ... Pastor has mined the sources ... Diplomatic historians can use it well."
Robert Schulzinger
Diplomatic History
"Pastor has been successful in walking the tightrope between the political memoir of a national security council official and an academic analysis of the evolution of U.S.-Nicaraguan policy during the presidencies of Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan."
Stephen J. Randall
Hispanic American Historical Review
"Should be read universally, It is a significant contribution to our understanding of a complicated and essential phase of our foreign policy It is well-written, and other authors writing on such intricate and complex issues could benefit from taking note of the organization, clarity, and flow of this book."
William J. Williams
The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
NOT CONDEMNED TO REPETITION
Other Books by Robert A. Pastor
Toward a North American Community:
Lessons from the Old World for the New (2001)
Exiting the Whirlpool: U.S. Foreign Policy Toward Latin America and the Caribbean (Second Edition, 2001)
A Century's Journey: How the Great Powers Shape the World, Editor, 1999 (Translated and published in Chinese in Taiwan and the People's Republic of China)
The Controversial Pivot: The U.S. Congress and North America (Edited with Rafael Fernandez De Castro, 1998) (El Actor Controvertido: El Congreso de Estados Unidos America del Norte, 2001)
Collective Responses to Regional Problems: The Case of Latin America and the Caribbean (Co-edited with Carl Kaysen and Laura Reed, 1994)
Democrac in the Caribbean: Political. Economic, and Social Perspectives (Co-edited with Jorge Dominguez and Delisle Worrel, 1993)
Integration with Mexico: Options for U.S. Policy (1993)
Whirlpool: U.S. Foreign Policy Toward Latin America and the Caribbean (1992) (First edition published by Princeton University Press) (El Remolino: Politica Exterior de Estados Unidos Hacia America Latina y El Caribe, 1995)
Democracy in the Americas: Stopping the Pendulum (Editor, 1989)
Condemned to Repetition: The United States and Nicaragua (1987; with new epilogue, 1988) (First edition published by Princeton University Press)
Limits to Friendship: The United States and Mexico (with Jorge G. Castaeda, 1988) ( Limites en la Amistad: Mexico y Estados Unidos )
Latin America's Debt Crisis: Adjusting to the Past or Planning for the Future ? (Editor, 1987)
Migration and Development in the Caribbean: The Unexplored Connection (Editor, 1985)
Congress and the Politics of U.S. Foreign Economic Policy (1980)
Not Condemned to Repetition
The United States and Nicaragua
REVISED AND UPDATED
Robert A. Pastor
First published 2002 by Westview Press
Published 2018 by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright 1987 by Robert A. Pastor
Preface to the Paperback Edition and Epilogue copyright 1988 by Robert A. Pastor
Revised and updated copyright 2002 by Robert A. Pastor
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
A Cataloging-in-Publication data record is available from the Library of Congress.
Set in 10-point Minion by Perseus Publishing Services
ISBN 13: 978-0-8133-3810-1 (pbk)
ISBN 13: 978-0-8133-3973-3 (hbk)
To Tiffin Margaret and Robert Kiplin,
indisputable improvements on the past
Figures
Photographs
Cartoon
My first contact with Nicaragua was on a December morning in 1968, when I disembarked from a banana boat at the Caribbean port of El Bluff next to a small town called Bluefields. Most of the Nicaraguans were black and spoke English with West Indian accents. For a moment, I thought that during the days I had spent cleaning snakes out of the boat's hold, the boat had taken a wrong turn. It had not. Bluefields, inhabited by blacks and Miskito Indians and ruled indirectly by the British for more than a century, was the western part of the Caribbean but also the eastern part of Nicaragua. Tired of snakes and eager to see the country, I jumped ship.
