where the classified intel was actually better than what was in the public domain. The Soviets, Cubans, and Sandinistas all provided material aid and support to the FMLN. I heard GEN Paul Gorman discussing supplying the FMLN from Nicaragua via the Gulf of Fonseca by small boat - 1985. It was still being done in 87 and 88. Cuba was responsible for the unification - such as it was - of the FMLN by insisting on it if the 5 insurgent groups wanted any aid from any communist source. Note that negotiations between the govt and the FMLN began in earnest only as the USSR was falling apart and the Sandinistas had been voted out of power in Nicaragua. Both events meant that no more Soviet bloc supplies would be coming in to the FMLN.

Arms aid also came through Honduras. Sanctuaries existed in the disputed pockets on the Honduran Salvadoran border called the "Bolsones" where FMLN units could rest and refit while arms were smuggled to them from Nicaragua under the not very watchful eyes of the UN bureaucrats who ran the refugee camps.

Gorman produced a pamphlet at the time. I suspect that the CARL has it and others - all unclas - but because they were sanitized from classified stuff, less than 100% compelling.

Cheers

JohnT