Bermúdez founded the largest Contra army in the war against Nicaragua's Marxist Sandinista government, which was supported by the Soviet Union and Cuba.

Under the Reagan Doctrine, through which the U.S. believed it could drive the Soviet Union out of Central America and other regions around the world, the U.S. began supplying Bermúdez' Contras with arms and other support.

Critics, however, charged that he failed to provide strategic direction for the FDN's campaigns, and that he hampered the Contras' effectiveness by rewarding loyal cronies and ex-Guardsmen instead of the most able commanders.

Discontent finally led to a council of field commanders ousting Bermúdez, as well as the purging of the Contras' predominantly Miami-based political leadership.

Votes on U.S. aid to the Contras were some of the most contentious and close votes in the United States Congress during the 1980s, but the predominant sentiment in Congress was that continued aid to the Contras was critical both to establishing a non-communist government in Nicaragua and driving the Soviet Union from the American hemisphere during the height of the Cold War.

[3] In the article, Bermúdez staunchly criticized the Sandinistas for their alliances with the Soviet Union and Cuba and for betraying promises they made to establish a representative democracy.

"[citation needed] In the last years of the Contra War, Bermúdez had taken up reading the works of noted libertarian author Ayn Rand.

In 2002 and 2004, his daughter, Claudia Bermúdez, now a resident of the San Francisco area, ran unsuccessfully against incumbent Democrat Barbara Lee for California's 9th congressional district seat.