Editing Reagan Doctrine (section)

===Controversy over Nicaragua===
{{Further|United States and state-sponsored terrorism#The Contras|Contras}}
Historian Greg Grandin described a disjuncture between official ideals preached by the United States and actual U.S. support for terrorism. "Nicaragua, where the United States backed not a counter insurgent state but anti-communist [[mercenaries]], likewise represented a disjuncture between the idealism used to justify U.S. policy and its support for political terrorism. ... The corollary to the idealism embraced by the Republicans in the realm of diplomatic public policy debate was thus political terror. In the dirtiest of Latin America's dirty wars, their faith in America's mission justified atrocities in the name of liberty".<ref>Grandin, Greg. ''Empire's Workshop: Latin America, The United States and the Rise of the New Imperialism'', Henry Holt & Company 2007, p. 89</ref> Grandin examined the behaviour of the U.S.-backed Contras and found evidence that it was particularly inhumane and vicious: "In Nicaragua, the U.S.-backed Contras decapitated, castrated, and otherwise mutilated civilians and foreign aid workers. Some earned a reputation for using spoons to gouge their victims' eyes out. In one raid, Contras cut the breasts of a civilian defender to pieces and ripped the flesh off the bones of another."<ref>Grandin, Greg. Empire's Workshop: Latin America, ''The United States and the Rise of the New Imperialism'', Henry Holt & Company 2007, p. 90</ref>

Professor Frederick H. Gareau has written that the Contras "attacked bridges, electric generators, but also state-owned agricultural cooperatives, rural health clinics, villages, and [[non-combatant]]s". U.S. agents were directly involved in the fighting. "CIA commandos launched a series of sabotage raids on Nicaraguan port facilities. They mined the country's major ports and set fire to its largest oil storage facilities." In 1984, Congress ordered this intervention to be stopped; however, it was later shown that the Reagan administration illegally continued (see [[Iran–Contra affair]]). Gareau has characterized these acts as "wholesale terrorism" by the United States.<ref name="Gareau">{{cite book |last=Gareau |first=Frederick H. |title=State Terrorism and the United States |year=2004 |publisher=Zed Books |location=London |isbn=1-84277-535-9 |pages=16 & 166}}</ref>

A CIA manual for training the Contras in [[Psychological warfare|psychological operations]], leaked to the media in 1984, entitled "Psychological Operations in Guerrilla War".<ref name="KillingHope">{{cite book |last=Blum |first=William |author-link=William Blum |title=Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions since World War II |url=https://archive.org/details/pdfy-q0ULBH2DJICRS3Vg |year=2003 |publisher=Zed Books |location=Noida, India |isbn=1-84277-369-0 |page=290 |access-date=2019-11-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170204124507/https://archive.org/details/pdfy-q0ULBH2DJICRS3Vg |archive-date=2017-02-04 |url-status=live }}</ref> recommended "selective use of violence for propagandistic effects" and to "neutralize" government officials. Contras were taught to lead:

{{quote|... selective use of armed force for PSYOP psychological operations effect. ... Carefully selected, planned targets&nbsp;– judges, police officials, tax collectors, etc.&nbsp;– may be removed for PSYOP effect in a UWOA unconventional warfare operations area, but extensive precautions must insure that the people "concur" in such an act by thorough explanatory canvassing among the affected populace before and after conduct of the mission.|James Bovard|Freedom Daily<ref name="FFF">{{cite web |title=Terrorism Debacles in the Reagan Administration |work=The Future of Freedom Foundation |url=http://www.fff.org/freedom/fd0406c.asp |access-date=2006-07-30 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060821215232/http://www.fff.org/freedom/fd0406c.asp |archive-date=2006-08-21 }}</ref>}}

Similarly, former diplomat Clara Nieto, in her book ''Masters of War'', charged that "the CIA launched a series of terrorist actions from the "mothership" off Nicaragua's coast. In September 1983, she charged the agency attacked [[Puerto Sandino]], Nicaragua's largest port, with rockets. The following month, [[Frogman|frogmen]] blew up the underwater oil pipeline in the same port – the only one in the country. In October there was an attack on Puerto Corinto with mortars, rockets, and grenades blowing up five large oil and gasoline storage tanks. More than a hundred people were wounded, and the fierce fire, which could not be brought under control for two days, forced the evacuation of 23,000 people."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nieto |first=Clara |title=Masters of War: Latin America and United States Aggression from the Cuban Revolution Through the Clinton Years |location=New York |publisher=Seven Stories Press |year=2003 |pages=343–45 |isbn=1-58322-545-5}}</ref>

The [[International Court of Justice]], when judging the case of ''[[Nicaragua v. United States]]'' in 1984, found that the United States was obligated to pay reparations to Nicaragua, because it had violated international law by actively supporting the Contras in their rebellion and by mining the Naval waters of Nicaragua.<ref>{{cite web|title=Case concerning military and paramilitary activities in and against Nicaragua (Nicaragua v. United States of America), International Court of Justice, Order of 26 september 1991|url=http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/70/6483.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924063157/http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/70/6483.pdf|archive-date=24 September 2015}}</ref> The U.S. refused to participate in the proceedings after the Court rejected its argument that the ICJ lacked jurisdiction to hear the case. The U.S. later blocked the enforcement of the judgment by exercising its veto power in the [[United Nations Security Council]] and so prevented Nicaragua from obtaining any actual compensation.<ref name="law">{{cite journal|author=Morrison, Fred L. |title=Legal Issues in The Nicaragua Opinion |journal=American Journal of International Law |date=January 1987 |volume=81 |issue=1 |pages=160–66 |url=http://bailey83221.livejournal.com/55750.html |doi=10.2307/2202146 |jstor=2202146 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205163909/http://bailey83221.livejournal.com/55750.html |archive-date=2012-02-05 |url-access=subscription }} "Appraisals of the ICJ's Decision. Nicaragua vs United States (Merits)"</ref>