As President Carter's ambassador to Nicaragua from 1977-1979, Mauricio Solaun witnessed a critical moment in Central American history. In U.S. Intervention and Regime Change in Nicaragua, Solaun outlines the role of U.S. foreign policy during the Carter administration and explains how this policy with respect to the Nicaraguan Revolution of 1979 not only failed but helped impede the institutionalization of democracy there. Late in the 1970s, the United States took issue with the Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza. Moral suasion, economic sanctions, and other peaceful instruments from...