David C. MacMichael, a disillusioned CIA analyst who accused the Reagan administration of misrepresenting intelligence as part of an effort to overthrow the left-wing government of Nicaragua, claims that foreshadowed the political scandal known as Iran-contra, died May 16 at his home in Linden, Va. He was 93.
A former Marine Corps captain with counterinsurgency expertise and a PhD in history, Dr. MacMichael joined the CIA in 1981 as a contract employee, analyzing military and political developments in Central America at a time when the region was considered a key Cold War battleground, home to the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua and a growing left-wing insurgency in El Salvador.
Amid fears that the Soviet Union was trying to stir up a communist revolution on the doorstep of the United States, the Reagan administration began funding right-wing Nicaraguan rebels known as the contras, justifying the effort by citing a flood of Soviet weapons that the Nicaraguan government was purportedly providing to Salvadoran guerrillas.
But as Dr. MacMichael began studying the situation, he found that the flow of weapons into El Salvador appeared to have stopped in early 1981, soon after Reagan took office. When he questioned his superiors about the lack of intelligence backing the White House’s claims, he was given vague answers. “They kept saying we have it,” he told the Guardian, “but they never showed it to me, even though I was cleared for everything except nuclear matters....
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