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-GN-inspection-1928.jpg)
THIS IS THE
HOMEPAGE
for more than 167 multi-page "Serial Intelligence Reports" (IR-Docs)
that were the principal vehicles by which
information on the war against the Sandinista
"bandits" was shared among members of the US
Marine Corps and Guardia Nacional de Nicaragua.
These documents were thus key instruments their
overall counterinsurgency campaign against the
rebel movement. (Photo: Marine officer
inspecting Guardia troops, ca. 1931, US National
Archives)
Ironically, as sophisticated and
extensive as the Marine-Guardia intelligence
gathering apparatus was, it was nowhere near as
effective as the Sandinista "grapevine" system
of communication. This was one of the key
realities and major ironies of this asymmetrical
war: an enormous imbalance with regard to
intelligence and information. As the
Marines & Guardia recognized, Sandinista
intelligence capacities were far superior to
their own, and constituted their key strategic
advantage throughout the war -- an advantage
that eroded over time but
that remained strong until the peace accords of
February 1933. As intelligence analyst
Major Hans Schmidt acknowledged in February
1928, "There is no doubt but that Sandino and
the generals operating with him are reliably
informed as to our every movement. Their knowledge
is so complete as to enable them to avoid us at
every turn." (B-2
Report, Managua, IR28.02.19)
While the
rebels, as a rule, did not commit their
intelligence to paper, the Marines
& Guardia did -- the good intel, the
questionable intel, the lousy intel -- all
bundled up together in each of these fascinating
reports. The information from various
stations & reports compiled in these serial
intelligence reports constitutes one of the most
valuable sources for historians seeking to
reconstruct the complex events of the Sandino
rebellion and the counterinsurgency that sought
to crush it.
There were several types of Serial Intelligence
Report:
B-2: Brigade
Intelligence (the Marine Corps 2nd Brigade
was the unit deployed to Nicaragua)
R-2:
Regiment Intelligence (numerous regiments in the 2nd
Brigade)
Bn-2: Batallion
Intelligence (several batallions in each
regiment)
GN-2: Guardia Nacional
Intelligence, starts September 1930 best I can
tell.
I am still in the process of
transcribing these documents (which generally
are of such poor quality that they cannot be
scanned and OCR'ed). For the available
IR-Docs, scroll down to January 1928:
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