The internal effects of the Nicaraguan revolutionary reconstruction, 1979-1989, are compared and contrasted with the portrayal of these effects in a sampling U.S. government documents. Special attention is given to U.S. Department of State documents aimed at influencing public opinion. That the revolution had some clearly positive effects on Nicaraguan society is concluded, but weaknesses and contradictions in the ideology and the programs of the revolution are exposed. It is suggested that much contemporaneous U.S. government information on the topic served a propagandizing function.