Sorry for the long absence between posts but I was a little distracted by finishing a chapter of my dissertation. Yesterday I came across this letter in the Witness for Peace newsletter, and being a Nebraskan I couldn’t help but post it.
Witness for Peace is a Christian relief organization whose originated in the early 1980s in opposition to U.S. intervention in Nicaragua. Witness for Peace spoke out against U.S. covert and overt aggression towards Nicaragua, holding demonstration and rallies in cities across the United States. They also sent thousands of volunteers to villages along the Nicaraguan/Honduran border in order to deter Contra attacks. They recognized that villages with U.S. volunteers in them would not be attacked because the Contras feared that the death of a U.S. citizen would spark public outcry in the United States and lead to a reduction in support from the U.S. government. The efforts of Witness for Peace and organizations like it did much to hamper the Reagan administration’s efforts to escalate the war in Nicaragua.
Andrew W. Wilson 