David C. MacMichael, an intelligence analyst who resigned from the C.I.A. in 1983 to go public with evidence that the Reagan administration was preparing to launch a coup against the government in Nicaragua, a revelation that would in part lead to what is known as the Iran-Contra Affair, died on May 16 at his home in Front Royal, Va. He was 95.
His daughter Alicia Williamson confirmed the death.
A history professor turned contract analyst for the C.I.A., Dr. MacMichael was one of the agency’s leading experts on Latin America at a time, in the early 1980s, when fears were rising over the Soviet Union’s support for left-wing governments in the region.
Of particular concern was Nicaragua, where the Sandinistas, a socialist movement, had taken power in 1980. The Carter administration initially provided aid to the new government, but suspended it after evidence emerged that the Sandinistas were funneling Soviet weapons to rebels in El Salvador.
When Ronald Reagan took office in 1981, he maintained that the Sandinistas would destabilize the region, and immediately began pushing for aid to right-wing rebels known as the contras.
At the time, Dr. MacMichael’s job was to help write intelligence briefings about Central America. What he saw startled him: The Carter administration’s pressure tactics had worked; the flow of aid and weapons from Nicaragua to El Salvador had slowed to a trickle. Yet the Reagan administration continued to insist otherwise, and Dr. MacMichael had evidence...
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