21st Century American Foreign Policy

Dr. Bruce W. Jentleson

Western Hemisphere

Unit 5The Americas:

Relations with Latin America and Canada

5A: Historical Background5B: US and Cuba5C: US, Mexico and Canada5D: Contemporary Overview

5A: Historical Background

• I. 19th Century

• II. Neo-Colonial Interventionism (late 19th-early 20th Centuries)

• III. Cold War

Monroe Doctrine, 1823

• “We should consider any attempt on their part [Old World European Powers] to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety . . . We could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other manner their destiny, by any European power, as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States.”

• President James Monroe, 1823

Simon Bolívar

War with Mexico, 1846-48

• 1821: Mexico independence from Spain• “Invasión estadounidense a México (United States' Invasion of

Mexico)• US annexation of Texas, “Republic of Texas”

– Western expansionism, “manifest destiny”– Slavery

• US gains California and much other territory in southwest and Rockies

• War powers concern:

“Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary, and you allow him to make war at his pleasure. Study to see if you can fix any limit to his power in this respect.”

Congressman Abraham Lincoln

II. Neo-Colonial Interventionism,Late 19th-Early 20th Centuries

• Spanish-American War, 1898• Helping Cuba gain its independence • Platt Amendment, 1901

“The government of Cuba consents that the United States may exercise the right to intervene for the preservation of Cuban independence, the maintenance of a government adequate for the protection of life, property, and individual liberty ….”

Roosevelt Corollary (to the Monroe Doctrine), 1904

• “Any country whose people conduct themselves well can count upon our hearty friendship. If a nation shows that it knows how to act with reasonable sufficiency and decency in social and political matters, if it keeps order and pays its obligations, it need fear no interference from the United States. Chronic wrongdoing, or an impotence which results in the general loosening of the ties of civilized society, may in America, as elsewhere, ultimately require intervention by

some civilized nation, and in the Western Hemisphere the adherence of the United States to the Monroe Doctrine may force the United States, however reluctantly, in flagrant cases of such wrongdoing or impotence, to the exercise of an international police power…”

• US military interventions in Cuba 1906-09, 1912, 1917-22• Other US military interventions

– Dominican Republic, 1916-24– Haiti, 1915-34– Panama 1903 (Canal Zone acquired)– Nicaragua, 1909-10, 1912-25, 1926-33– Honduras, 1924-25– Mexico (Mexican Revolution), 1914, 1917

• President Franklin Roosevelt’s “Good Neighbor” Policy “Never before in our history have we had fewer friends in the Western Hemisphere than we have today . . . Neither from the argument of financial gain, nor from the sound reasoning of the Golden Rule, can our policy, or lack of policy be approved.”

Repealed the Platt Amendment, withdrew Marines from Haiti and Nicaragua, other “good neighbor” steps

III. Cold War

• Containment applied to Latin America: Power

• Principles? “ABC” definition of democracy– “Anybody but a Communist”

– “Duck test”

• Prosperity: Multinational corporations and other US economic interests

• Guatemala 1954– Elections held, Guzman elected President

• Not perfect but freer and fairer than most in Latin America– Land reform, nationalized United Fruit Company holdings– Some communist ties– CIA covert action, military coup– Military ruled for decades, over 200,000 Guatemalans killed

• Cuban Revolution 1959– Quick capsule: Batista a US-supported dictator, Fidel Castro

leads the revolution, over half century of US-Cuban tensions and conflict

– More in 5B, next lecture

• JFK’s “Alliance for Progress” 1961

– Major foreign aid program for Latin America

– Those who make peaceful change possible make violent revolution inevitable

• Support for military coups – Argentina 1963– Brazil 1964• Dilma Rousseff, current Brazilian President, former

political prisoner– Chile 1973– Otras (0thers)

• Central America in the 1980s

– Nicaragua, Somoza, Sandinistas

– El Salvador

Summary: Historical Legacies

• 4 Ps

• Power and Prosperity > Principles

• History of US dominance, interference in internal affairs

Citations

• Simon Bolivar: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Simon_Bolivar.jpg#file. Public Domain, via Wikipedia Commons.

• Western Hemisphere: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/americas/americas_pol96.jpg. Public Domain, via US government.