USA... Friend or Foe?

           Having someone to look out for you can be a really good thing when in trouble. To have someone by your side to pick you up when you fall can be kind of a nifty thing. Strong bonds can be created as result of this. This type of relationship might sound all so perfect; however there can be some drawbacks that come with this. The specific individuals who are always finding themselves in trouble could possibly never learn to stick up for themselves or fight their own fights. Valuable life lessons can potentially be lost with the constant intervention of the “big brother” or the stronger individual. Although I’m a firm believer of fighting your own fights, I believe it is sometimes necessary to have an intervention.

Back in the day during the Cold War, the USA was playing the role of a big brother/patrol for many Latin American countries. The US was so concerned that communism would spread so they would keep an eye on countries that would show signs that would point them in that direction. The Americans feared communism because they thought it entailed world domination and also because they felt as if their freedoms were going to be at risk of being taken away. They associated the communist party with corruptness and evil so they didn’t want none of that for themselves or anybody else. The idea of the domino effect started to develop, which meant that if one country were to fall under communist control, many neighboring countries would follow that path also. The US took it upon themselves to prevent that from happening so they intervened in many situations specifically in Latin America.

In 1952, the US planned to intervene in Guatemala after finding out that an individual who was democratically elected to run for presidency, which appealed to the communist party, was running for presidency. Guatemala, being so close to North America, probably really alarmed the US so they took ultimate precautions to avoid Nicaragua from falling into communist hands. The US aided the people that were running against this individual however they were unsuccessful because he took precautions to secure his position. The US didn’t have any of that so they devised a plan which was to train native Guatemalan people to rebel and overthrow the government. The CIA was responsible to train many of these troops and to promote American values on the Guatemalan people. They were successful on overthrowing the government and acquired a democratically friendly individual as their leader.

This is one example of many on which the US had to step in to ensure democracy. The US would do anything in their power to avoid communism from spreading and to coming to the western hemisphere which is why we see so many interventions by them in Latin America. Again, I am a firm believer fighting your own fight simply because of the fact that you learn how to defend yourself and because it builds character. During the cold war; however, I justify the multiple US interventions because who knows how the world would’ve turned out with a dominating communist bureaucracy.

 

http://www.coldwar.org/articles/50s/guatemala.asp
http://www.tn4me.org/sapage.cfm/sa_id/135/era_id/8/major_id/10/minor_id/23