Fort Leavenworth

Fort Leavenworth was a U.S. Army base in Kansas where Nicaraguan National Guard officers received advanced military training, producing the leadership cadre that would later form the Contra army. Along with Fort Gulick and Fort Benning, Fort Leavenworth was one of the U.S. military schools that trained the Nicaraguan officers who became the FDN's commanders.¹

Training the Guardia

Somoza invoked the American military education program when pleading with the U.S. ambassador not to abandon his National Guard: "They have been fighting Communism just like you taught them at Fort Gulick and Fort Benning and Fort Leavenworth. Out of nine hundred officers we have, eight hundred or so belong to your schools." Enrique Bermúdez, the future FDN military commander, was among the hundreds of Nicaraguan officers who attended U.S. military schools, receiving the training that later made him the CIA's choice to lead the Contra army.²