Latin America and the Cold War.

The Cold War was mainly thought to be a war between capitalism and communism in Europe and the United States of America. What most people do not know is how deep and extreme the cold war was in Latin America, especially Cuba. The effect of the Cold War between Latin America and the United States altered their relationship significantly. The United States greatly feared the spread of communism and wanted it abolished from countries around the world. After the Cuban Revolution, the soviet union and its communist ideas had a large effect on its new government. This of course scared the United States as Cuba was so close to them geographically. It was not only Cuba that worried the United States, it was almost every Latin American state and country. Washington decided to insert themselves in all of the Latin American countries political affairs. They wanted to strengthen the governments that allied with the United States, and weaken the ones that allied with other countries, especially the Soviet Union.

While the United States claimed to support democracy in the public, the “worriers” of the Cold War worked overtime to secure anti-communist dictatorships in other Latin American countries. Their only goal was to keep communism from sneaking into their Latin American neighbors. Dwight Eisenhower even went as far as saying not to “offend the dictators... they are the only people we can rely on”. This not only angered the people of Latin America but citizens of the United States who saw only hypocrisy in the whole situation. With so much interference going on in Latin America, many rebels felt that they had no choice but to intervene with warfare.

The most defining moment for the United States and Latin America in the Cold War was when Fidel Castro overthrew the Cuban government and came to power. Castro cut all ties with America and began a close relationship with the Soviet Union. Both Eisenhower and Kennedy worked to destabilize Cuba's new government but they were unsuccessful. The tensions with Cuba escalated to an all-time high when the Soviet Union sent nuclear missiles to Cuba. This was known as the Cuban Missile Crisis, probably the most well known act of the Cold War and Latin America. Cuba and the United States were in a political and military stand off that lasted thirteen days. Nuclear missiles were just ninety miles away from the United States and tensions were high. The threat was dissolved when President Kennedy agreed not to invade Cuba if the missiles were taken away. He also agreed to remove some missiles from Turkey.

The rest of Latin America responded to the Cold War with guerrilla warfare. They followed the manual Guerrilla Warfare, written by revolutionary Che Guevara. This became their map for rebellion. After numerous waves of guerrilla warfare, multiple failed attempts, and the death of Che Guevara things began looking grim. Civil wars in the countries of Guatemala, Argentina and Brazil led ruthless anti-communists to remove the Marxist ideas that they felt poisoned their countries. At the end of the Cold War, only Cuba, still under the rule of Castro, held their ground against America. With the fall of the Soviet Union and with ties cut with the United States, Latin America was left to rebuild and reboot on its own.

Sources. Kennedy's address on the Cuban Missile Crisis

http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/cuban-missile-crisis

http://resources.primarysource.org/content.php?pid=86804&sid=645699

http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199766581/obo-9780199766581-0104.xml