Sandinista!

No, not the slightly dubious Clash triple album I hated at the time but has since grown on me to become one of my favourites, but a trip back in time to those jolly days of US intervention in South America. I'm sure that will never happen again. 

Nice to see the boys wearing fedora, although I miss their spiky hair. 

 

John B once more took us to a scene of Cold War revolution and conflict, this time 1980s Nicaragua. It was another polmil strategy committee game, and this time even less structured than usual, being more a free Kriegspiel, albeit still structured into turns and using dice to determine the outcome of actions.

The game started in 1981 as Ronald Reagan came to power, and ran in yearly turns until the late 1980s.

There was the odd map, but the 'action' was essentially resolved over four major areas of Nicaragua, North, South, West/Pacific coast (Mangua) and East (Mosquito Coast) with Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south.

The general cast list was as follows:
Daniel Ortega, leader of the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua: Me
Eden Pastora, aka "Commandante Zero", former Sandinista and leader of the moderate ARDE Contra faction: Mark
Adolf Calero, leader of the hard-line FDN Contra faction: John A
President Oscar Arias of Costa Rica, moderate leader of a key front line state: Terry

William Casey, US Director of Central Intelligence and fervent anti-Communist: Tim
Vladimir Kryuchkov, head of the First Chief Directorate (overseas ops) of the KGB and hard core Cold Warrior: Jerry
LtCol Oliver North, USMC: Pete

Senator Gary Hart (D, CO): Micheal

I'd been a supporter of the Nicaraguan struggle for independence from US interference back in the 1980s, and even received a letter of thanks from the Nicaraguan Foreign Minister for my efforts. So naturally I was cast as Daniel Ortega, leader of the FSLN.

My main aims were to keep the Sandinistas in power, resist US/Contra (FDN) aggression, build up my forces and to avoid being a Soviet stooge. Sadly we inherited a catastrophic economic situation from the Somoza regime, and were seemingly beset on all sides by interfering super powers. 

Much of the time it was the usual rogues gallery on view.

I won't bore you with a blow by blow account, but essentially the FDN were very successfully equipped by the CIA. Despite the international outcry at the atrocities perpetrated by the the Contras, Congress was somewhat late in banning Federal funding for the FDN. Although the Sandinistas successfully built a coalition of defence with the ARDE and foreign volunteers, it wasn't enough to stop the FDN armoured column with air support(!) fighting through to Mangua. 

Fighting continued around Managua for two years by the Contras weren't powerful enough to suppress the rest of the country, but neither could the Sandinistas retake the capital as illegal US support continued to be flown in thanks to Ollie North.

By 1987 both the FSLN and FDN had had enough of being big power playthings and agreed to a ceasefire and free, supervised, elections. As a show of goodwill, the FSLN released various captured US airmen to Senator Gary Hart, greatly aiding his 1988 presidential campaign. At least not one Cuban had set foot in Nicaragua. 

Against resources like these, what hope did we have?

That was a great game, and tbh only increased my respect for all the leaders of small countries who have been buffeted by the winds of foreign imperialism in the last century and the current one. As Ortega, there was just so much stuff to fix, and no way to do it as an endless round of new problems were thrown our way. Yankees and Commies go home!

A really good way to bring back to life those conflicts which were such a big deal in the 1980s, but seem to have been forgotten about now. In the new age of imperialism and power politics, we are doomed to forget the lessons of history.

We have now started using the AI transcript and summary feature in Zoom to record these things, and while the transcript is gibberish (being a speech to text translation of each participant window), the summary isn't bad, here is an example excerpt. All hail our new robot overlords:

Nicaragua's Political Turmoil and International Involvement

In the meeting, Adolf Calero discussed the overthrow of the Sandinista Government by three well-equipped and well-trained brigades, backed by the United States. John then presented a speech by President Arias condemning military actions and inviting representatives from the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. to the Pan Central American Conference for regional peace. William Casey, Director of Central Intelligence, announced the U.S.A.'s support for President Arias's call and their provision of

covert intelligence to assist the FDN in their campaign to overthrow the Sandinista dictatorship. Daniel Ortega, representing the Sandinistas, opposed the FDN's attempt to impose their proxy regime by force and condemned the CIA's mining of the port. Kryuchkov from Moscow supported President Arias's call for non-intervention and continued to discredit the CIA's involvement. Eden, representing the 

ARDE and the Mesquites, offered support in the defense of Nicaragua.