Chap. 8

Rude Neighbor

 

           During WWII the United States felt like it needed allies in Latin America, so President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced a “Good Neighbor Policy” and swore off military intervention. The United Stated benefited greatly from having the countries in Latin America as allies, through the import of agriculture products, and by having Latin American soldiers go fight over seas. Relations went sour after the war ended due to the treatment of Latin America, and this in turn built resentment against the United States.

            After the war ended the United States announced its US Marshall Plan, which used a lot of money to rebuild Europe in order to fix its economy, and to stop the spread of Communism.    (https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/marshall-plan) Many of the countries that received the most help were former enemies of the US, so Latin Americans believed that they would also be receiving the same amount of help. They were mistaken and got the short end of the stick by receiving only 2% of US foreign aid. With a struggling economy many Latin American countries took it upon themselves to help their people, but many policies that were put in place set off “red” alerts in the eyes of the United States.

The “red” alerts were seen as an appeal to communism, and led to the intervention by United States through Proxy forces. These forces are recruited amongst local enemies of the targeted government and are trained by the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency). Proxy forces were used when nationalist in Guatemala nationalist started to adopt Marxist ideas. The Arbenz government wanted land reform and gave freedom to the communist party under the current regime.( http://www.coldwar.org/articles/50s/guatemala.asp) US policy makers saw their financial interest being threatened and sent proxy forces joined with Guatemalan army to overthrow President Jacobo Arbenz.

US intervention was also seen when Castro, after overthrowing the government started doing things that set off “red” alerts. He began to sale Cuban sugar, which was almost only sold to the US, to the Russian market. Also, Castro expropriated US-owned oil refineries when he bought Russian oil at a cheap price and they refused to accept the Russian oil. As Fidel Castro began to expropriate more US-owned property the United States declared an embargo on trading with Cuba. Later the US sent proxy forces that were defeated and failed to spark an internal rebellion.

            An example of when the US did not intervene in the spread of the Communism, due to the threat not affecting the financial interest of the US, was when Bolivia’s National Revolutionary Movement (MNR) took control in 1952. The MNR clearly showed Marxist beliefs there was no intervention due the far proximity, and because MNR expropriations did affect the US. Instead the United States chose to be “Constructively engaged” and funded the MNR.

            US intervention in Latin America showed once again the opportunist mentality that the United States operates on. There was an alliance built during war to improve the odds of the US winning and after the war the well-being of the countries in Latin America were not a concern. Once Latin American countries aimed to fix their own problems by having land reforms and better pay for the lower class, the United States saw their financial interest being threatened and shut down any movements towards positive mobility. In other cases were financial interest were not threatened the US did no send proxy forces to do their dirty work. The future of Latin America will always be negative as long as the United States decides to keep intervening in their political issues.

 

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