Private Sources of U.S. Foreign Policy: William Pawley and the 1954 Coup d'État in Guatemala

2005 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 36-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Max Holland

As a wealthy American businessman and former ambassador, William Pawley was a key actor in PBSUCCESS, the covert operation that brought down the government of Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán in Guatemala in 1954.The anti-Arbenz rebels, led by Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas, could not have defeated the Guatemalan army on their own. The key to a successful coup was getting the army to act on their behalf, and in this regard, control of the air was vital. Pawley, owing to his knowledge of Latin America and experience in aviation, played a central role in ensuring that the rebels enjoyed air superiority during their move against the president. At a more abstract level, Pawley exempli fied the role non-governmental actors played in the formulation and implementation of U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War. The “state-private network,” as it has been dubbed, remains a rich vein for scholarly investigation.

1996 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 465-493 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcia Olander

The years following World War Two produced a strong resurgence of U.S. intervention in Central America and the Caribbean couched in Cold War terms. Although the U.S. intervention in Guatemala to overthrow the government of Jacobo Arbenz in 1954 has generally been seen as the first case of Cold War covert anti-Communist intervention in Latin America, several scholars have raised questions about U.S. involvement in a 1948 Costa Rican civil war in which Communism played a critical role. In a 1993 article in The Americas, Kyle Longley argued that “the U.S. response to the Costa Rican Revolution of 1948, not the Guatemalan affair, marked the origins of the Cold War in Latin America.” The U.S. “actively interfered,” and achieved “comparable results in Costa Rica as in Guatemala: the removal of a perceived Communist threat.” Other authors have argued, even, that the U.S. had prepared an invasion force in the Panama Canal Zone to pacify the country. The fifty years of Cold War anti-Communism entitles one to be skeptical of U.S. non-intervention in a Central American conflict involving Communism. Costa Ricans, aware of a long tradition of U.S. intervention in the region, also assumed that the U.S. would intervene. Most, if not all, were expecting intervention and one key government figure described U.S. pressure as like “the air, which is felt, even if it cannot be seen.” Yet, historians must do more than just “feel” intervention. Subsequent Cold War intervention may make it difficult to appraise the 1948 events in Costa Rica objectively. Statements like Longley's that “it is hard to believe that in early 1948 … Washington would not favor policies that ensured the removal of the [Communist Party] Vanguard,” although logical, do not coincide with the facts of the U.S. role in the conflict.


Ensemble ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-122
Author(s):  
Soham DasGupta ◽  

India played an active role in the liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971. The relation between the two countries remained cordial in the initial years but it soon soured with the coup d’etat of 1975. This also marked the rise of the anti-Indian elements in the Bangladeshi politics. This article makes a brief survey of anti- Indian elements that has remained a part and parcel of the political fabric of Bangladesh since 1971. It also looks into the ways in which the anti-India stance has been instrumental in garnering popular support to hold on to political power. The article begins with the background of the creation of Bangladesh and India’s active role in it which was followed by the friendship treaty signed between the two countries. Then it moves to the changing scenario following the coup d’état of 1975 which marked the visible changes within the polity of Bangladesh. The nature of nationalism underwent change moving from secularism to a religious character which found expression in the policies of the state. The military rule most often found it convenient to use the anti-Indian stance in order to please the fundamentalist elements of the country in its bid to garner popular support. The issues of water sharing, refugees and issues of fomenting possible insurgency with active support of India were highlighted. Even after the restoration of democracy, the anti-Indian factions remained active in opposing the government of Sheikh Hasina’s foreign policy with regard to India. Radical religious factions, who had throughout opposed the liberation war, still play a major role in fanning the anti-Indian sentiments in Bangladeshi politics.


Author(s):  
Andrew Preston

Assessing the application of the liberal consensus idea to postwar foreign policy, this chapter contends that myths about the bipartisan spirit of U.S. foreign policy have too long found ready acceptance from historians. Politics did not stop at the water’s edge, even when bipartisanship was at its supposed zenith during World War II and the early Cold War. While there was unanimity during the post-war era that the growth of international communism was a threat to U.S. interests, this did not mean that foreign policy was free of political conflict, and partisan charges that the government of the day was losing the Cold War were commonplace. Meanwhile, non-elite opinion evinced little support for confrontation with the main Communist powers, reluctance to engage in another land war like Korea, and concern about survival in the nuclear era. The divisiveness wrought by Vietnam was supposed to have brought an end to the “Cold War consensus,” but uncertainty over its meaning was evident well before this.


2008 ◽  
Vol 77 (3) ◽  
pp. 391-422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen D. Wu

With the onset of the Cold War, the federal government became concerned with the impact that the status and treatment of Chinese Americans as a racial minority in American society had on perceptions of the United States among populations in the Asian Pacific. As a response, the State Department's cultural diplomacy campaigns targeting the Pacific Rim used Chinese Americans, including Betty Lee Sung (writer for the Voice of America) and Jade Snow Wong and Dong Kingman (artists who conducted lectures and exhibitions throughout Asia). By doing so, the government legitimated Chinese Americans' long-standing claims to full citizenship in new and powerful ways. But the terms on which Chinese Americans served as representatives of the nation and the state——as racial minorities and as ““Overseas Chinese””——also worked to reproduce their racial otherness and mark them as ““non-white”” and foreign, thus compromising their gains in social standing.


2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
DANIELLE FOSLER-LUSSIER

AbstractFrom January to May 1965 the University of Michigan Jazz Band traveled extensively in Latin America for the State Department's Cultural Presentations Program. This tour serves as a case study through which we can see the far-reaching effects of cultural diplomacy. The State Department initially envisioned its cultural and informational programs as one-way communication that brought ideas from the United States to new places; yet the tours changed not only audiences, but also the musicians themselves and even the communities to which the musicians returned. Both archival and oral history evidence indicate that the Michigan jazz band's tour succeeded in building vital imagined connections across international borders. The nature of these connections demonstrates that the cold war practice of pushing culture across borders for political purposes furthered cultural globalization—even though the latter process is often regarded by scholars as a phenomenon that began only after the end of the cold war. The jazz band's tour highlights the essential role of music and musicians in fostering new transnational sensibilities in the politicized context of the cold war.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 483-500
Author(s):  
Mehmet Şahin

The Turkish foreign policy (TFP) after the Cold War had been based on traditional institutionalized values. In 2009, the governing party consolidated its power and additionally, the international environment provided more space for decision-makers. As a result, the government seeks to change foreign policy preferences in accordance with its agenda. This article examines this change from a neoclassical realist perspective and argues that due to lack of systemic pressure, Turkey can seek new alignments in the Middle East, rather than overlapping its interests with the West.


2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-70
Author(s):  
Jorge Magasich Airola

The government of Salvador Allende a empted to replace the traditional Chilean foreign policy of alignment with one of the blocks of the Cold War and its “ideological borders,” with a new international policy of “ideological pluralism,” aiming to establish new commercial and diplomatic relations between different countries, regardless of their national political regimes. This policy involved the defense of the principles and objectives of the so-called Third World, which included proposals to: reform the international financial order; promote Latin American integration, especially of the Andean countries; improve Chile's relationship with three neighboring countries and negotiate border disputes; and create a judicial entity to face hostility from the U.S. government. The development of this new foreign policy was interrupted by the coup d'état. Nevertheless, four decades later, it gained importance, and this policy became a reference for many Latin American governments. Spanish El gobierno de Salvador Allende intentó reemplazar la tradicional política exterior chilena de alineamiento con uno de los bloques de la Guerra Fría y sus “fronteras ideológicas”, por una nueva política internacional de “pluralismo ideológico”, lo que significa establecer relaciones diplomáticas y comerciales con todos los países del mundo, independientemente del régimen interno que los rija. Tal política implica la defensa de los principios y objetivos del entonces llamado “Tercer Mundo”, la cual incluye proposiciones para reformar el orden financiero internacional; la promoción de la integración latinoamericana, particularmente la de los países andinos; relaciones cuidadosas con tres vecinos negociando los litigios fronterizos; y la búsqueda de una instancia jurídica para afrontar la hostilidad del gobierno estadounidense. Pese a que la mayor parte de esta nueva política internacional quedó sólo en sus inicios pues fue interrumpida por el golpe de Estado, cuatro décadas más tarde ha cobrado actualidad, transformándose en una referencia para varios gobiernos de la región. French Le gouvernement de Salvador Allende a essayé de remplacer l'alignement traditionnel de la politique étrangère du Chili avec l'un des blocs de la guerre froide et de ses «frontières idéologiques», par une nouvelle politique internationale du «pluralisme idéologique». Autrement dit, établir des relations diplomatiques et commerciales avec tous les pays, indépendamment de leurs régimes politiques propres. Une telle politique impliquait la défense des principes et objectifs de ce qu'on appelait alors «Tiers Monde», qui comprend des propositions visant à réformer l'ordre financier international; la promotion de l'intégration latino-américaine, en particulier celle des pays andins ; l'entretien des relations chaleureuses avec ses trois voisins concernant la négociation des différends frontaliers; et l'instauration d'une instance juridique destinée à faire face à l'hostilité du gouvernement des Etats-Unis. Bien que l'essentiel de cette nouvelle politique étrangère fût esseulée à ses débuts puis interrompue par un coup d'Etat, quatre décennies plus tard elle est devenue d'actualité, tout en s'imposant comme une référence pour de nombreux gouvernements de la région.


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