Question

What was the name of the congressional act that was established to prevent the U.S. from helping rebels overthrow their governments?

Answer 1

Created in the context of the Civil War in Nicaragua, the Boland Amendment was firstly attached to the Defense Appropriations Act of 1983, signed by President Ronald Reagan on December 21, 1982. It takes its name after the Massachusetts Democrat Edward Boland, the Representative who authored the amendment, and it outlawed any U.S. assistance to the Contras, a rebel group with an anti-communism ideology, in direct regard to the overthrowing of the Nicaraguan government. However, the act still allows assistance for all other purposes.