American foreign policy and the civil war in El Salvador, 1980--1983: A case study in proxy war

This thesis examines the foreign policy of the United States with regards to the civil war in El Salvador of 1980-1992, with a primary on the years between 1980 and 1983. The civil war was a natural outgrowth of the exploitative relationship between the Salvadoran elite and the lower classes, and the role of El Salvador within the context of the American client-state system and hegemony in Latin America. The continuity between the policies of the Carter administration and the still further escalation of the war by the Reagan administration is not well-known but essential to understanding American foreign policy concerning the civil war in El Salvador. The war was one that essentially pitted the Salvadoran state, ruling oligarchy and military against not only insurgent armed rebel forces but also against the wider civilian population of El Salvador, and against civil society itself.