Casey’s obsession—and ultimate downfall—was Central America. He was convinced that the administration had to confront Soviet expansionism in Nicaragua and El Salvador before it reached the United States. Cuban operatives were arming and funding the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua and sending weaponry to leftist rebels in El Salvador. In December 1981, Reagan signed a covert finding that authorized the CIA to provide $19 million in arms to anti-Sandinista guerrillas, known as the Contras, who were trying to topple the country’s leftist government. CIA analysts predicted that the strategy would
...more
