Unlike earlier U.S. interventions in Latin America, the Reagan administrations attempt to overthrow the Sandinista government of Nicaragua during the 1980s was not allowed to proceed quietly. Tens of thousands of American citizens organized and agitated against U.S. aid to the counterrevolutionary guerrillas, known as contras. Believing the Contra War to be unnecessary, immoral, and illegal, they challenged the administrations Cold War stereotypes, warned of another Vietnam, and called on the United States to abide by international norms.

Roger Peace is adjunct professor of history at Tallahassee Community College.