Connecting Central America to the Southern Cone: The Chilean and Argentine Response to the Nicaraguan Revolution of 1979

2021 ◽  
Vol 78 (4) ◽  
pp. 553-579
Author(s):  
Molly Avery
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Central America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Southern Cone ◽  
Regional Context ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Nicaraguan Revolution ◽  
Violent Conflicts

AbstractThe history of the Cold War in Latin America in the 1970s is commonly split into two episodes: the establishment of anticommunist dictatorships and the ensuing repression across the Southern Cone in the early and middle decade, and the Nicaraguan Revolution and the eruption of violent conflicts across Central America at its close. By exploring the Chilean and Argentine response to the Nicaraguan Revolution, this article brings these two episodes together, demonstrating how they were understood to belong to one and the same ideological conflict. In doing so, it highlights the importance of the revolution in the Chilean and Argentine perception of the Cold War and explores how the Sandinista triumph directly shaped Southern Cone ideas about US power and the communist threat, also prompting reflection on their own ‘models’ for anticommunist governance. Both regimes responded by increasing their support for anticommunist forces in Guatemala and El Salvador, often conducting this aid through a wider transnational and clandestine network. This article contributes to new understandings of the nature of Latin American anticommunism in this period, challenges traditional understandings of external involvement in Central America, and demonstrates the need to understand events in Latin America in this period in their full regional context.

Social-reformist Experiments in Latin America during the Cold War

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-105
Author(s):  
Ruslan Kostiuk ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Scientific Article ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Political Transformations ◽  
Socialist Movement ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Left Movement ◽  
Latin American Countries

The article is devoted to the consideration and analysis of the practical policy of Latin American national reformism and social reformism during the Cold War. The author shows that the political and ideological gamut of the non-communist left movement in Latin America in the bipolar period was very wide. Specifically in this scientific article, the author refers to examples of the exercise of power by different directions of the socialist movement in the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Peru, Chile. The author shows the existing connections between Latin American national reformism and the Socialist International and at that time comes to the conclusion that the ideology and practice of Latin American social democracy during the Cold War had a special, specific character. The common features characteristics of both the ideological project and the practical policy of the social reformist forces in the period under review were a commitment to political transformations, the expansion of social and political rights of citizens, the strengthening of the state and public sector in the economy, the priority of social policy, an anti-oligarchic strategy, a focus on a fair agrarian reform, anti-imperialism and the desire to defend national independence in foreign policy. In some cases (Nicaragua, Panama, Chile), the nature of social-economic transformations went beyond the framework of classical social reformism and had a revolutionary democratic content. The results of the center-left experiments in Latin American countries during the Cold War have varied, but by the 1990s most of them had failed. This is largely due to the fact that in the specific historical conditions of Latin American countries, national reformism in power led to the development of authoritarian and personalist tendencies, an increase in corruption and bureaucracy, attempts to merge the party and state apparatus.

Marinera with the Yankees

2018 ◽  
pp. 91-124
Author(s):  
Iñigo García-Bryce
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Latin American ◽  
State Department ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Asylum ◽  
Student Leader ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The U.S

This chapter explores Haya’s changing relationship with the United States. As an exiled student leader he denounced “Yankee imperialism” and alarmed observers in the U.S. State Department. Yet once he entered Peruvian politics, Haya understood the importance of cultivating U.S.-Latin American relations. While in hiding he maintained relations with U.S. intellectuals and politicians and sought U.S. support for his embattled party. His writings increasingly embraced democracy and he maneuvered to position APRA as an ally in the U.S. fight fascism during the 1930s and 40s, and then communism during the Cold War. The five years he spent in Lima’s Colombian embassy awaiting the resolution of his political asylum case, made him into an international symbol of the democratic fight against dictatorship. He would always remain a critic of U.S. support for dictatorships in Latin America.

Latin America between the Second World War and the Cold War: Some Reflections on the 1945–8 Conjuncture

1988 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie Bethell ◽  
Ian Roxborough
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Cold War ◽  
The United States ◽  
Second World War ◽  
The Political ◽  
Postwar Period ◽  
World War ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Second World

The importance of the years of political and social upheaval immediately following the end of the Second World War and coinciding with the beginnings of the Cold War, that is to say, the period from 1944 or 1945 to 1948 or 1949, for the history of Europe (East and West), the Near and Middle East, Asia (Japan, China, South and East Asia), even Africa (certainly South Africa) in the second half of the twentieth century has long been generally recognised. In recent years historians of the United States, which had not, of course, been a theatre of war and which alone among the major belligerents emerged from the Second World War stronger and more prosperous, have begun to focus attention on the political, social and ideological conflict there in the postwar period – and the long term significance for the United States of the basis on which it was resolved. In contrast, except for Argentina, where Perón's rise to power has always attracted the interest of historians, the immediate postwar years in Latin America, which had been relatively untouched by, and had played a relatively minor role in, the Second World War, remain to a large extent neglected. It is our view that these years constituted a critical conjuncture in the political and social history of Latin America just as they did for much of the rest of the world. In a forthcoming collection of case studies, which we are currently editing, the main features of the immediate postwar period in Latin America, and especially the role played by labour and the Left, will be explored in some detail, country by country.1In this article, somewhat speculative and intentionally polemical, we present the broad outlines of our thesis.

Da Segunda Guerra Mundial à Guerra Fria: políticas militares estadunidenses para a América Latina (1943-1947)

Diálogos ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 157
Author(s):  
Dennison De Oliveira
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Advisory Board ◽  
World War ◽  
Us Military ◽  
National Archives ◽  
America Latina ◽  
The Cold War

O texto interpreta a atuação de organizações militares e diplomáticas estadunidenses dedicadas à América Latina. O contexto é o da transição da Segunda Guerra Mundial à Guerra Fria. A base empírica é composta por diferentes documentos mantidos nos Arquivos Nacionais dos EUA (US National Archives) do acervo do Comitê Consultivo Conjunto das Repúblicas Americanas, (Joint Advisory Board on the American Republics - JAB) cobrindo o período 1940-1945. O comitê estava encarregado de propor e executar políticas ligadas à Defesa Hemisférica a serem desenvolvidas em conjunto com os países da América Latina na guerra e no pós-guerra. Abstract From World War II to the Cold War: US military policies for Latin America (1943-1947) The text interprets the performance of US military and diplomatic organizations dedicated to Latin America. The context is that of the transition from World War II to the Cold War. The empirical basis is composed of different documents maintained in the US National Archives of the collection of the Joint Advisory Board of the American Republics (JAB) covering the period 1940-1945. The committee was charged with proposing and implementing policies related to Hemispheric Defense to be developed jointly with the Latin American countries in war and postwar. Resumen De la Segunda Guerra Mundial a la Guerra Fría: políticas militares estadounidenses para América Latina (1943-1947) El texto interpreta la actuación de las organizaciones militares y diplomáticas estadounidenses dedicadas a América Latina. El contexto es el de la transición de la Segunda Guerra Mundial a la Guerra Fría. La base empírica está compuesta por diferentes documentos mantenidos en los Archivos Nacionales de los Estados Unidos (US National Archives) del acervo del Comité Consultivo Conjunto de las Repúblicas Americanas (JAB) cubriendo el período 1940-1945. El comité estaba encargado de proponer y ejecutar políticas vinculadas a la Defensa Hemisférica a ser desarrolladas en conjunto con los países de América Latina en la guerra y en la posguerra.

Brazil and ‘Latin America’

2010 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 457-485 ◽  
Author(s):  
LESLIE BETHELL
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Cold War ◽  
The United States ◽  
History Of Ideas ◽  
Spanish American ◽  
History Of ◽  
America Latina ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
First Time

AbstractThis essay, part history of ideas and part history of international relations, examines Brazil's relationship with Latin America in historical perspective. For more than a century after independence, neither Spanish American intellectuals nor Spanish American governments considered Brazil part of ‘América Latina’. For their part, Brazilian intellectuals and Brazilian governments only had eyes for Europe and increasingly, after 1889, the United States, except for a strong interest in the Río de la Plata. When, especially during the Cold War, the United States, and by extension the rest of the world, began to regard and treat Brazil as part of ‘Latin America’, Brazilian governments and Brazilian intellectuals, apart from some on the Left, still did not think of Brazil as an integral part of the region. Since the end of the Cold War, however, Brazil has for the first time pursued a policy of engagement with its neighbours – in South America.

US and the Cold War in Latin America

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas C. Field Jr.
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Political Action ◽  
The United States ◽  
Western Hemisphere ◽  
Soviet Bloc ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Cold War

The Cold War in Latin America had marked consequences for the region’s political and economic evolution. From the origins of US fears of Latin American Communism in the early 20th century to the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, regional actors played central roles in the drama. Seeking to maximize economic benefit while maintaining independence with regard to foreign policy, Latin Americans employed an eclectic combination of liberal and anti-imperialist discourses, balancing frequent calls for anti-Communist hemispheric unity with periodic diplomatic entreaties to the Soviet bloc and the nonaligned Third World. Meanwhile, US Cold War policies toward the region ranged from progressive developmentalism to outright military invasions, and from psychological warfare to covert paramilitary action. Above all, the United States sought to shore up its allies and maintain the Western Hemisphere as a united front against extra-hemispheric ideologies and influence. The Cold War was a bloody, violent period for Latin America, but it was also one marked by heady idealism, courageous political action, and fresh narratives about Latin America’s role in the world, all of which continue to inform regional politics to this day.

Argentina-US Relations

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Hoyt
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
World War I ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
The United States ◽  
Southern Cone ◽  
World War ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Developed Nations

Relations between the United States and Argentina can be best described as a cautious embrace punctuated by moments of intense frustration. Although never the center of U.S.–Latin American relations, Argentina has attempted to create a position of influence in the region. As a result, the United States has worked with Argentina and other nations of the Southern Cone—the region of South America that comprises Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile, and southern Brazil—on matters of trade and economic development as well as hemispheric security and leadership. While Argentina has attempted to assert its position as one of Latin America’s most developed nations and therefore a regional leader, the equal partnership sought from the United States never materialized for the Southern Cone nation. Instead, competition for markets and U.S. interventionist and unilateral tendencies kept Argentina from attaining the influence and wealth it so desired. At the same time, the United States saw Argentina as an unreliable ally too sensitive to the pull of its volatile domestic politics. The two nations enjoyed moments of cooperation in World War I, the Cold War, and the 1990s, when Argentine leaders could balance this particular external partnership with internal demands. Yet at these times Argentine leaders found themselves walking a fine line as detractors back home saw cooperation with the United States as a violation of their nation’s sovereignty and autonomy. There has always been potential for a productive partnership, but each side’s intransigence and unique concerns limited this relationship’s accomplishments and led to a historical imbalance of power.

Latin American Tercermundistas in the Soviet Union

2020 ◽  
pp. 221-240
Author(s):  
Tobias Rupprecht
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Third World ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The One ◽  
The Third World ◽  
The Cold War

This chapter complicates conventional understandings of Latin America’s Cold War by looking at the travels of tercermundista intellectuals and activists to all parts of the USSR. Visits of intellectuals from the global South to the Cold War Soviet Union have hardly been studied. Accounts of the history of Cold War Latin America have put the Soviet Union, as a political and intellectual point of reference, aside too readily. The early Cold War was a time of enhanced, and rather successful, Soviet attempts to present their country in a positive light towards the emerging Third World. Those Latin Americans who developed a sense of belonging with the Third World in the 1960s, this chapter demonstrates, were still susceptible to the lures of certain characteristics of the Soviet state and suggested their implementation in their home countries. The reason for the positive perception came, on the one hand, as a result of very lavishly funded and well conducted programmes for Third World visitors in the Soviet Union.

From the Cold War to the Cruelty of Violence: Jean Franco's Critical Trajectory from The Decline and Fall of the Lettered City to Cruel Modernity

PMLA ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 131 (3) ◽  
pp. 701-710
Author(s):  
Arturo Arias
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Latin American ◽  
The United States ◽  
Central Intelligence Agency ◽  
Intelligence Agency ◽  
Lettered City ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Cold War

The Cuban Revolution Generated a New Communist Paranoia in the United States. Interest in Latin America Grew Dramatically after Castro's rise to power in 1959 and was partly responsible for the explosive growth in the number of scholars specializing in hemispheric issues during the 1960s. Latin Americans, in turn, saw this phase of the Cold War as a furthering of imperial aggression by the United States. The Eisenhower administration's authoritarian diplomatic maneuvers to isolate Guatemala by accusing the country's democratically elected president, Jacobo Arbenz (1950-54), of being a communist and by pressuring members of the Organization of American States to do likewise had already alarmed intellectuals and artists in Latin America five years before. On 17 June 1954, Carlos Castillo Armas and a band of a few hundred mercenaries invaded the country from Honduras with logistical support from the Central Intelligence Agency in an operation code-named PBSUCCESS, authorized by President Eisenhower in August 1953. By 1 July 1954 the so-called Movement of National Liberation had taken over Guatemala. Angela Fillingim's research evidences how the United States officially viewed Guatemala as “Pre-Western,” according to “pre-established criteria,” because the Latin American country had failed to eliminate its indigenous population (5-6). Implicitly, the model was that of the nineteenth-century American West. As a solution, the State Department proposed “finishing the Conquest.”

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