CHAPTER VI
A month following Lefty’s accident during his first solo flight, the Major General in command of the United States Marine forces, called a hurried meeting of his staff late one evening.
The Chief of Staff, a pompous brigadier general, who possessed an exceptional knowledge of tropical countries due to long years of service spent below the equator, and the Chief of Aviation, a methodical, middle-aged Lieutenant Colonel, responded to the Major General’s summons as did a representative from the Navy Department.
These four men, gathered together behind closed doors in typical Washington fashion, met to discuss an urgent problem that was inciting the wrath of American citizens throughout the country, already placing both the Department of State and the Secretary of the Navy in a self-conscious embarrassing position.
Far away in the little Republic of Nicaragua, a young and dangerous rebel had become displeased over the results of a recent election.
This man, in the guise of a patriot and self-appointed deliverer, traveled among the ignorant peasantry, calling men to revolt against a mythical hand that was supposed to be oppressing these people.
In time, he had gathered a fairly good-sized army which, mysteriously enough, soon became clothed and armed, declaring open war upon the recognized republic and its administrative heads.
For a time, the soldiers of the republic waged a losing battle against the rebel horde, whose forces were continually supplied from some mysterious source with funds, food supplies and weapons of war.
It soon became apparent that the men fighting under the leadership of the usurper, Sandino, were far more interested in confiscating American property and threatening the lives of the Northern Republic’s citizens with interests in Nicaragua, than they were in lifting the supposed iron hand of an unseen tyrant.
The helpless president of the little republic, divided in two through a vicious civil war, appealed to the State Department in Washington for aid, reminding us of a document known as the Monroe Doctrine, contending that the rebel forces were being financed by some foreign power. It also became apparent that Sandino was not a deliverer of his people, but a paid dupe of some great commercial and industrial group who had promised him a free ruling hand and financial aid in return for the delivery of the little nation.