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Eisenhower, Somoza, and the Cold War in Nicaragua: 1953-1961. By MICHAEL D. GAMBONE. Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishers, 1997. Maps. Tables. Notes. Bibliography. Index. xiv, 247 pp. Cloth, $65.00.
Given its recent media prominence, it is remarkable that there are so few studies of Nicaragua's twentieth-century history prior to the Sandinista revolution. The most notable exceptions are Richard Millett's now classic Guardians of the Dynasty: A History of the U.S.-Created Guardia Nacional of Nicaragua and the Somoza Family (Maryknoll, N.Y., 1977) and Knut Walter's unmatched The Regime of Anastasio Somoza: 1936-1956 (Chapel Hill, 1993). Nevertheless, Michael Gambone is to be praised for further attempting to correct the deficit of pre-Sandinista studies by producing a history of U.S.Nicaraguan relations during the Eisenhower administration (1953-61).
Gambone divides his book into two parts, corresponding to the first and second Eisenhower administrations. Within each part the chapters are arranged chronologically, examining both sides of the relationship between the two countries. Gambone argues that the relationship between the United States and the Nicaraguan microstate...