unpatriotized history:

The main project of the NED in its founding years was to try to overthrow the democratic government of Nicaragua by violence and terrorism.

Fifty years before, the US had invaded Nicaragua and created a police organization called the National Guard, which controlled the country, with US support, under the leadership of the Somoza clan of dictators. Democratic forces overthrew this US bloc dictatorship in 1979, promising to hold free elections, which they did in 1984 and 1990.

The US established military bases in the neighboring countries (which were also members of the US-dominated bloc) and led an army, made up mostly of former members of the National Guard with leadership, funding, weapons, and airborne support supplied by the US, against the Nicaraguans. The US instructed this army, called the Contras, to target the civilian infrastructure, such as schools and clinics, in a campaign of terrorism that the US thought would be more effective than limiting their activities to fighting the Nicaraguan military, which they also fought.

The US also used its influence with other countries and international lending institutions to further help destroy Nicaragua's economy. The US's war on Nicaragua killed thousands of Nicaraguans. (It also destroyed much of the incountry, and ruined the network of programs established by the Nicaraguan government which were proving very effective at helping the Nicaraguans, with impressive gains in health and literacy. It was very important to the US to prove that the Nicaraguan economic model couldn't work, so the fact that it was working had to be erased by destroying it from the outside.)

Nicaragua took the US to the World Court, which found the US guilty of "unlawful use of force" and ordered it to pay reparations to Nicaragua. The US refused to obey the court.

Funding these activities was the main project of the NED during its founding years.