University of Oklahoma Graduate College
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UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE DEFINING RIGHTS: CONTESTING THE CONTRA WAR THROUGH HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCACY, 1981-1988 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY By ERIK MOORE Norman, Oklahoma 2018 DEFINING RIGHTS: CONTESTING THE CONTRA WAR THROUGH HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCACY, 1981-1988 A DISSERTATION APPROVED FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY BY _____________________________________ Dr. Kathleen A. Brosnan, Chair _____________________________________ Dr. Alan McPherson _____________________________________ Dr. Raphael B. Folsom _____________________________________ Dr. James Cane-Carrasco _____________________________________ Dr. Charles D. Kenney © Copyright by ERIK MOORE 2018 All Rights Reserved. To Acacia – Thank you. You pushed me, you supported me, and you made it possible. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project took shape from a conversation in a legal history course with Kathleen Brosnan about the shortcomings of international law. I expressed my disappointment that international law, historically, seemed to reinforce inequality, empire, and intervention. Though I do not recall the exact wording, Dr. Brosnan asked if human rights changed things, changed the focus or effect of international law-a deceptively simple question. I cannot remember how I responded, but I do know that through the end of my course work and comprehensive exams I continued thinking about how human rights and different conceptions of law influenced U.S. foreign relations. My focus narrowed considerably, but this dissertation is my attempt to explore that basic curiosity. I have received immeasurable assistance and support in my journey to complete my doctoral degree and to bring this research project to completion. From the history department at the University of Oklahoma to friends and family, this really was a group effort. The shortcomings of this project are my own, but I received essential support to enable me to complete my course work, visit archives without limitation, and put together a final product of which I am proud. Graduate students rely on the financial generosity of others, and I was fortunate enough to receive everything I needed. There were tense times, but it worked out. I thank Cliff Hudson for his contribution to the history department to fund the Hudson Family Fellowship for select doctoral students at OU. I appreciate his dedication to the study history and the interest he took in our work. I especially treasured the annual dinners with Mr. Hudson and the other Hudson fellows. In this iv time of shrinking grant funds, doctoral students at OU can still benefit from the Graduate College’s Robberson Research & Creative Endeavors Grant, which allowed me visit the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. The Samuel Flagg Bemis Dissertation Research Grant from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations provided critical funds that enabled a two-week trip to libraries in Philadelphia and New York. The history department also provided essential funding through the Bea-Mantooth Estep Scholarship in Latin American History and the Anne Hodges & H. Wayne Morgan Fellowship. The Morgan Fellowship served as the last piece in the research funding puzzle that allowed me to take an extended visit to archives in Managua. In my final year at OU, the Graduate College again came through for me, awarding the Bullard-Wethington Dissertation Completion Fellowship. The history department at the University of Oklahoma has been a wonderful, supportive academic home for me these past five years. I appreciate all the staff has done for me. Christa Seedorf worked through more than a couple moments of confusion or panic on my part over funding and travel issues. Janie Adkins had all the answers to my questions about the program, comprehensive exams, and dissertation deadlines, and she often answered them before I realized I had questions. The former director of graduate studies, Judith S. Lewis, helped secure additional funding for me at a critical point, and for that, I am so grateful. I thank my dissertation committee, Jim Cane-Carrasco, Charles D. Kenney, Raphael B. Folsom, and Kathleen A. Brosnan, for their work with on this project. I feel fortunate to have had this amazing collection of scholars reading my work and engaging me as a v scholar. Their comments were diverse, insightful, and have helped me shape this dissertation into a stronger piece of scholarship. My primary advisor and mentor, Alan McPherson, has been a remarkable source of guidance through the research and writing. The genuine interest and investment he made in my progress through the PhD program at OU was a reassuring boost to my confidence on more than one occasion. Then the speed and thoroughness with which he reviewed my writing was incredible. Dr. McPherson held high expectations for the intellectual strength of the argument and evidence while maintain rigorous standards for clarity in writing. All students should be so fortunate. I could not have hoped for a better dissertation advisor. I aspire to give my students the kind of dedication Alan McPherson gave to me. My family bore a heavy burden to allow me to see this through. The emotional, and often material, support of my parents and my wife’s parents helped make this all possible. They quietly and patiently watched me leave the practice of law to pursue a new profession, and they never questioned my sanity out loud, though I think we all did (do) silently at some point. They provided support, excitement, and joy at every step. My three sons have lived knowing only of their father as a graduate student. That was hard, for them and me. Two of my three boys were born after I started graduate school, and my oldest was too young to remember much before I started graduate school. I tried to make the most of my time with them but giving up their dad for days or weeks was not something for which they would have ever asked. They often had a hard time understanding. vi My wife’s burden weighed heaviest. She encouraged me to leave the practice of law and to pursue my passion. She supported the choice to continue my graduate studies at the University of Oklahoma and leave our parents and siblings in Kansas City. While I was absent from the house for class, writing, or travel, she kept our boys happy and healthy, and with three active, rough, and moody boys who never stopped eating, that was a herculean task. I had it easy. This does not happen without her. Thank you, everyone. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Two Sides of a Coin: Human Rights and the Contra War ........................................... 1 Chapter 1 – Rise of the Sandinistas: Human Rights in Revolution and Counterrevolution in Nicaragua, 1978-1982 ............................................................. 35 1. Revolution for Human Rights ......................................................................... 36 2. Counterrevolution ........................................................................................... 47 3. The Sandinista Threat to Human Rights ......................................................... 56 4. The Contra Opposition ................................................................................... 68 5. Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 83 Chapter 2 – A Language of Advocacy Against the Contras: Anticolonial Human Rights in Nicaragua, 1982-1983 ................................................................................ 86 1. A Secret No More ........................................................................................... 87 2. Early Human Rights Opposition to the Contras ............................................. 99 3. Human Rights and the Contra War in Nicaraguan Rhetoric ........................ 109 4. A Human Rights Defense for the Contras .................................................... 120 5. Conclusion .................................................................................................... 130 Chapter 3 – Altered Perceptions: Negotiating Peace and the Mining of Nicaraguan Ports, 1984-1985 ...................................................................................................... 132 1. Contadora and the Beginning of Peace Talks ............................................... 133 2. Naval Mines and the Shifting Politics of the Contra War ............................ 140 3. Democracy in Nicaragua Through Freedom Fighters and Elections ............ 150 4. A Human Rights Victory Over Contra Funding ........................................... 160 5. Conclusion .................................................................................................... 170 Chapter 4 – The Freedom Fighters: Democratic Human Rights in Nicaragua, 1985- 1986 ......................................................................................................................... 172 1. The Case Against the Contras ....................................................................... 173 2. A Campaign of Disinformation .................................................................... 183 3. A Foundation of Doubt in Human Rights..................................................... 196 4. A Defeat of Anticolonial Human Rights ...................................................... 207 5. Conclusion .................................................................................................... 219 Chapter 5 – Days of Scandal and