#66: AIM: How did Events in Latin America Shape US Foreign Policy?

The US has had a long history of conflict with Latin America going back to Teddy Roosevelt & the policies of “ Dollar Diplomacy “. Most of the Latin American nations are very poor with high birth rates. Many of these people have come to the US, many illegally, to look for work.

President Kennedy created an aid program called the Alliance for Progress and supported the creation of the “ Organization of American States “, which also provided aid. Since the end of WW II the US has sent troops into many Central American nations to protect US interests and support governments who were anti-Communist. We have even interfered into the internal affairs of Chile & Argentina, and of course our powerful economy has had a major effect on all nations in this hemisphere.

In an effort to prevent the further spread of communism into Central & South America, during the Cold War, the US embarked on a program to thwart Cuba’s efforts to spread communism. At the request of the US the O.A.S. members refused to trade with Cuba. The US sent troops into the Dominican Republic in 1965 to put down a revolt and an attempted coup. Pres Johnson claimed that the rebels were communists, which they were not, and the US ended up supporting a dictatorship. The US again did the same thing in the tiny island of Grenada in 1983.

In Panama Pres. Carter signed a treaty returning control of the Panama Canal to Panama in the year 2000. However the US retained the right to protect the Canal. Also in Panama in 1989 Pres. Bush sent in the army to arrest Panama’s president Manuel Noreiga who had been indicted in US courts for assisting Colombian drug smugglers to ship cocaine into the US. Noreiga is now in jail in the US.

In the early 1980’s Central America again became an area of possible communist influence. A long bloody civil war raged in El Salvador with many people fleeing to the US. In Nicaragua a communist supported group called the Sandinistas overthrew a US supported dictatorship. The US tried to support the Contras, an anti-Communist group, but Congress feared getting involved in another civil war, as the US had done in Vietnam. However there was support for the Contras in Washington and money & arms were illegally supplied as was discovered in the Iran – Contra Affair & scandal. Eventually free elections were held in Nicaragua and the Sandinistas were voted out of power.

With the Cold War over & the fear of the spread of communism ended, the Latin American nations are trying to rebuild their economies. However these nations still need US aid & will always fear that the US could always interfere with their govts. to protect US interests.

HOMEWORK: Read pgs. 727 to # 2 on pg. 732. Do pg 724 Key Terms & Key People, Events,& Ideas, numbers 1,5,6,8,9,10, & pg. 723 ques 4.