CHRONOLOGY 1981 JANUARY 20: Ronald Reagan inaugurated as President. APRIL 1: Reagan terminates $118 million in U.S. aid to Nicaragua (obtained by Jimmy Carter) despite report of tbe U.S. ambassador in Managua that Sandinistas had halted transshipment of arms to leftist guerrillas in El Salvador. APRIL: At a meeting with CIA Director William Casey, Honduran army Colonel Gustavo Alvarez Martinez proposes that the United States hack anti-Sandinista insurgents based in Honduras in a plan leading to direct U.S. intervention to oust the government in Managua. AUGUST: Casey's newly appointed operations director for Latin America, Duane Clarridge, twice visits Honduras to signal U.S. go-ahead for Alvarez proposal. AUGUST 11-12: Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Enders ^ discusses a negotiated resolution of differences with the Sandinistas, centering on their military buildup and support for leftist insurgen cies. AUGUST 11; Nicaraguan Democratic Forces (FDN) formed in Guatemala. $19.95d.ir, million approves in support for contraproposal rebels. to provide 1982 AUGUST 20: Enders outlines U.S. policy on Nicaragua in San Francisco speech, adding democratization to list of U.S. condi tions for normal relations. DECEMRER 8: Democratic-controlled House bans covert aid for purpose of overthrowing the Sandinistas. 1983 MAY 27. Enders fired; Tony Motley appointed to replace him. JULY—DECEMBER: U.S. military stages unprecedented 16 CHRONOLOGY 17 sea and land exercises in and around Honduras to intimidate Nicaragua, Cuba, and the Salvadoran rebels. JULY 28: For the first time since Reagan took office, the House votes down contra aid. 1984 JANUARY—FEBRUARY; CIA mines Nicaraguan harbors. MARCH 31; Alvarez ousted in Honduras. MAY; NSC adviser Robert McFarlane secures Saudi pledge of $1 million a month to contras. JUNE 1; Shultz travels to Managua and launches new nego tiating round aimed at resolving U.S.-Sandinista differences. SEPTEMBER 5-6; U.S. envoy presents U.S. position at Manzanillo. OCTOBER 10; Congress suspends U.S. aid to contras. NOVEMBER 4; Daniel Ortega elected president in Nicara gua. NOVEMBER 6; Reagan reelected in forty-nine-state land slide. 1985 JANUARY 18; United States announces suspension of Man zanillo talks. FEBRUARY 11; Saudi king Fahd pledges another $24 mil lion to contras, for total of $32 million. APRIL 30; Motley resigns; replaced by Elliott Abrams. MAY 1; U.S. economic embargo against Nicaragua. JUNE 12; House approves $28 million in "humanitarian aid to contras. JUNE 30-JULY 1; After meeting contra military leaders in Miami, Oliver North implements plan to raise funds and deliver arms to contras through offshore enterprise managed by Richard Secord. DECEMBER 6; North tells Israeli official of plan to divert profits to contras from secret sale of arms to Iran. 1986 JUNE 25; House approves $100 million, including $70 million in military aid to contras. OCTOBER 5; U.S. supply plane shot down over Nicaragua. Crew member Eugene Hasenfus parachutes into captivity. 18 CHRONOLOGY NOVEMBER 3: U.S. arms-for-hostages talks with Iran re vealed in Beirut magazine. NOVEMBER 4: Democrats win control of the Senate. NOVEMBER 25: U.S. aid diversion to contras revealed by Attorney General Edwin Meese; Oliver North fired, John Poin- dexter resigns. DECEMBER 15: CIA Director William Casey disabled by stroke. 1987 AUGUST 5: Wright-Reagan plan for peace presented. AUGUST 7: Central American leaders agree to peace plan drafted by Costa Rican president Oscar Arias. NOVEMBER 5: Sandinistas announce readiness for indirect talks with contras. 1988 JANUARY 15-16: At Central American summit, Daniel Or tega agrees to direct talks with contras, lifts state of emergency. FEBRUARY 3: House defeats contra funding request, killing the military aid program. MARCH 11: Robert McFarlane pleads guilty to misde meanor charges arising from Iran-Contra affair. MARCH 16: John Poindexter, Oliver North, Richard Secord, and Albert Hakim indicted on criminal charges. MARCH 16: Reagan dispatches 3,200 troops to Honduras in a show of force" after a reported Sandinista incursion into Honduras. MARCH 23: Sandinista and contra leaders sign tentative eease-fire. 1 T H E P A T T E R N I S S E T IN JULY 1980, when Republicans gathered in Detroit to nomi nate Ronald Reagan as their presidential candidate, Nicaragua was not even on the party's agenda. Yet on July 15, barely one year after the Sandinistas had taken power in Managua, Re publicans adopted a platform calling for their overthrow. Party experts had not recommended this position. Nor had it been reviewed by the platform committee. The language was inserted by a staflF aide to North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms in a back-room nianeuver. On July 8, Representative Jack Kemp of upstate New York, a former professional football quarterback who viewed himself as a prospective president, had been in the chair of the Subcommittee on Foreign Policy and Defense in Room 2040 of the Cobo Hall convention center when the Latin American plank came up. Kemp 19.