THIS IS THE
HOMEPAGE for evidence relating
to the military dimensions of the conflict
between the Marines-Guardia and the Sandinista
rebels, with special focus on
"contacts."
1. DEFINITIONS &
SOURCES
In the lexicon of the Marines-GN, a
"contact" was an on-the-ground encounter between
the Guardia Nacional and an opposing group of
armed men in which both sides discharged firearms.
"Contacts" thus ranged from brief skirmishes to
hours-long battles. They excluded military
encounters between airplanes and ground forces.
They also excluded violent encounters involving
no Guardia (only Marines), and violent
encounters between Marine-Guardia-allied Voluntarios
and opposing forces (both Sandinista and
Conservative).
These
"Contacts" pages distinguish between these varied types of
violent encounters, and consider
them together along a spectrum of
violence-making. But the main focus is on
military contacts between the Marines-GN and the
EDSN.
The Marines brought with them
to Nicaragua a penchant for making lists, a
practice adopted by its offspring, the Guardia
Nacional. Various lists of contacts
in-the-making can be found in various boxes of
RG127, culminating in the "Official List of
Contacts" completed sometime in 1933, a booklet
of 111 pages with data on 510 contacts.
(For a PDF
file of the Official List, at 39 MB, click on
the cover image at upper right.)
As GN Jefe Director Major General C. B. Matthews
wrote in the Official List's undated
introduction,
"The data for the
booklet was extracted under the direction of
Colonel LeRoy P. Hunt, GN, GN-2, GN-3, from the
Operations Files of the Guardia Nacional. Errors
may be found and omissions may occur, but the
book represents our best efforts considering
available time and data. The inception of
the idea for this booklet originated with
Lieutenant Emil M. Kreiger, GN, and the
compiling of the data, the printing, the
designing, publishing and distribution thereof
are entirely due to his efforts."
An early set
of lists that includes Marines-only
contacts was found in Box
12 of Entry 113C of Record Group 127 in the US
National Archives, presented here as a
21-page PDF file:
EARLY LISTS OF
CONTACTS, 1927-1928
(69 MB; or click on image at right). The
material is presented in its original sequence,
which as is often the case means in reverse
chronological order. The collection is
notable for its inclusion of 10 ground contacts & one
aerial contact between the USMC and
non-Sandinista Liberal forces in March, April,
and May 1927, months before the
first contact between the Marines-Guardia and
Sandino's forces on 16 July 1927 — including:
• near León (March 27)
• near
León (March 28, aerial contact)
• Nagarote (April
19)
• Chichigalpa and Posoltega (April 20)
• El
Paso and El Viejo (May 13)
• Chinandega, León,
and Las Banderas (May 14)
• La Paz Centro (May
16).
Another
useful list compiled by the Office of
Naval Intelligence for the two years from April
2, 1928 to April 5, 1930 includes 63 contacts
— 36 with Marines exclusively (no Guardia and thus
excluded from the "Official List"; for
a full image click on
the image below):
My
own list of contacts for the Marines, the
Guardia, and the Voluntarios, compiled
by combing through extant evidence (including
telegrams, intelligence reports, patrol reports,
and letters) exceeds 750. Including aerial
contacts brings the total close to 900.
Including instances in which shots were fired by
only one side, and violence against property,
brings the total number of discrete
episodes of violence-making to several thousand.
Mapping and
analyzing these contacts and related
episodes of violence-making in time & space
shines a bright light on the rebellion's social
geography and the ebbs & flows of the process of
insurgency & counterinsurgency over
time.
2. MAPPING
CONTACTS IN SPACE & TIME
Further sections of these Contacts pages
remain
in progress.
|