The paper examines the complex of causes and motives that prompted Washington to start a secret CIA operation against the government of the Sandinista National Liberation Front in Nicaragua during the Ronald Reagan presidency. The author demonstrates the specificity of the Republican administration’s approach to using paramilitary methods of intervention in general, and in Central America, in particular. The paper studies the conflict between the executive and legislative branches of government in the United States, which appeared to be one of the causes of the Iran-Contra Affair.