Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from radiotopia.

My name is Jody Avergan.

This day, March 16, 1988, Ronald Reagan ordered more than 3,000 U.S. troops to Honduras

to help along the border between Honduras and Nicaragua. This is of course part of the ongoing

intervention by the US in Nicaragua applying pressure on the leftist

sendinista government there backing the rebel contras. The troops were sent ostensibly to

protect the border from an invasion or an intervention by Nicaraguan troops

into Honduras. So look there is a lot to talk about when it comes to US, Nicaragua,

Central America, the Iran-Contra scandal, but the interesting thing in this moment is a couple

things that we'll try and touch on. First is the timing. By

1988 the Iran-Contra scandal was in full swing. The US appetite for

intervention was waning, so this is a pretty aggressive move given how late

it comes and then it's also just this idea of a lot of troops being sent on the ground around the

contrifers feels like a covert ops kind of thing and the fact that there are large numbers of troops maybe undercuts some of that story so here to discuss it is as always

Nicole Hammer of Columbia and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley hello hey Jody

hey there so let's start with the timing.

Nicki, what is your, what is your sense of this happening in 1988

when, you know, really I think the heat of the war Nicaragua and the civil war and

the US intervention was really kind of a little earlier in the 80s.

Yes I think this is more about the blowback that was happening in the United

States than things that were happening on the ground in Nicaragua and Honduras.

This is happening on the very same day that John Poindexter and Oliver North were indicted for their criminal activity involved in the Iran-Contra scandal.

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