''The Freedom Fighter's Manual'' is a fifteen-page
propaganda
Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...
booklet that was manufactured by the United States
Central Intelligence Agency and
airdropped over
Nicaragua in 1983, with the stated goal of providing a "Practical guide to liberating Nicaragua from oppression and misery by paralyzing the
military-industrial complex of the traitorous
marxist
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
state". The manual explains several methods by which the average citizen could cause
civil disorder
Civil disorder, also known as civil disturbance, civil unrest, or social unrest is a situation arising from a mass act of civil disobedience (such as a demonstration, riot, strike, or unlawful assembly) in which law enforcement has difficulty ...
. A
Contra fighter gave the manual to a U.S. reporter in
Honduras
Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...
in 1984.
Contents
The publication describes many ways in which the average citizen could disrupt the everyday workings of the government. It begins with actions that require little to no risk at all, such as hiding or destroying important tools, calling in sick for work, and leaving lights and faucets on. It then progresses to instruct people to steal food from the government, release livestock from farming
cooperatives, make false reports of fires and crimes, and sever telephone lines. Four pages are devoted to disabling vehicles. By the end of the pamphlet, there are detailed diagrams showing how to make
Molotov cocktails and use them to
firebomb police stations.
See also
*
CIA activities in Nicaragua
CIA activities in Nicaragua have been ongoing since the 1980s. The increasing influence gained by the Sandinista National Liberation Front, a left-wing and anti-imperialist political party in Nicaragua, led to a sharp decrease in Nicaragua–U ...
*
Iran–Contra affair
*
Oliver North
* ''
Nicaragua v. United States''
*
Psychological warfare
*
Psychological Operations in Guerrilla Warfare
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwee ...
*
U.S. Army and CIA interrogation manuals
The U.S. Army and CIA interrogation manuals are seven controversial military training manuals which were declassified by the Pentagon in 1996. In 1997, two additional CIA manuals were declassified in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA ...
*
U.S. Army Field Manual 30-31B
''U.S. Army Field Manual 30-31B'' is a document claiming to be a classified appendix to a U.S. Army Field Manual that describes top secret counterinsurgency tactics. In particular, it identifies a "strategy of tension" involving violent attacks w ...
*
United States involvement in regime change
References
External links
*
The Freedom Fighter's Manual (Full Copy in Spanish with English Translation)'
The Freedom Fighter's Manual (Copy in Russian Translation)The Freedom Fighter's Manual - battling communist rule
nicaragua.com
by Evan Thomas, Ross H. Munro, and Martin Casey in Time magazine, October 29, 1984
{{DEFAULTSORT:Freedom Fighter's Manual
Central Intelligence Agency publications
Cold War documents
Contras
Guerrilla warfare handbooks and manuals
1983 non-fiction books
Nicaragua–United States relations
American propaganda during the Cold War
Nicaraguan Revolution