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Quest for the Holy Grail: Central American War, Catholic Internationalism, and United States Public Diplomacy in Reagan’s America

Among the polarizing ideological concerns of the 1980s was President Ronald Reagan’s foreign policy in Central America. The Reagan Administration prioritized its anticommunist agenda over other concerns by supporting military generals and their governments and by condemning left-leaning groups in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala. The development and consequences of Reagan’s foreign policy in Central America, as well as the White House efforts to sell its Central American policy to the American people, have been well researched by historians and social scientists. Reagan’s hardline against communism in Central America excited his political base in advance of his 1984 reelection bid and shore up a coalition of Reagan voters, including Protestants in the so-called “religious right” and working class Catholics who had recently abandoned the Democratic Party. However, less is known about the ways in which the Reagan White House contended with Catholics in the United States and in Central America who were actively concerned about the potentially dangerous implications of Reagan’s policies for the Catholic Church and the poor in Central America. Transnational Catholic institutions and networks, including missionary associations, bishops’ conferences, colleges and universities, peace and justice organizations, and the Catholic press, challenged Reagan’s policies on the ground in Central America and in Washington, D.C. By the end of Reagan’s first term, this “Catholic internationalism” became an obstacle to Reagan’s Central American “public diplomacy.” The White House Office of Public Liaison (OPL) targeted American Catholics whose loyalty to Reagan may have been tested by reports from Central America that U.S. allies in the region were targeting the poor as well as Catholic priests and sisters. OPL officials, specifically Faith Ryan Whittlesey (director, 1983–1985) successfully situated the Central America policies within a popular anticommunist discourse, allowing Reagan’s political advisers to sidestep the transnational criticisms from Catholic missionary associations, including Maryknoll, and their allies in the Central America solidarity movement, including the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) and the United States Catholic Conference (USCC). Although Reagan never won support for his Central America policy in the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives, his agenda in Central America generated popular enthusiasm for anticommunist ideology and methods even as it spurred on transnational Catholic activism, marking one of the defining moments of the 1980s “war of ideas.”