With twenty independent nations, and six dependent territories, the Latin American Region of the world is a very influential group of states, with very differing ideals and opinions. While the United States had many large proxy wars being fought around the world, American politicians were very afraid of one thing, Latin American Dictators. Throughout this time, Latin America as a whole, but primarily South American governments were dominated by Dictatorships or ruled by a controlling party, usually an influential, wealthy family. As John Foster Dulles, Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Secretary of State stated,” Do nothing to offend the dictators…they are the only people we can depend on.” (Sewell) This kiss up mentality is going to end up being the main political strategy of the United States, throughout the Cold War.
Throughout history, The United States of America has been the forerunning nation for the theory of Democracy and its potential applications into nations of turmoil or civil war. Through the signage of the Rio Pact in 1947, and by starting the Organization of American States in 1948, the United States has started trying to prevent it’s “backyard” from causing any problems throughout its fight with the Soviet Union. (Cohn) This was very evidently similar to the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, which had threatened European Superpowers from attempting to re-take the countries they had once controlled, less than a hundred years ago. Throughout the Cold War, this ideology was used to give money and weapons to Latin American countries as an attempt to combat the spread of Communism.
The United States, politically, was acting very hypocritically throughout this time period, upsetting many Latin American people. The United States has publicly and outrightly supported the ideals of democracy as being the “one true form of government.” However, many presidential administrations, both democrat and republican, had strongly but secretly supported many communistic peoples and groups. (Cohn) The US support for strongly oppressing rulers, such as the Somoza family from Nicaragua, Fulgencio Batista in Cuba, and Rafael Trujillo, the dictator of the Dominican Republic, caused many Latin Americans to resent the United States, as a whole. (Cohn) This had also caused many free, independent Latin American Countries to dislike the nation. (Cohn) Through this, the ideals of Carl Marx and his Marxist ideology, advocating decreased class structure and increased social equality, had largely spread throughout Latin American scholars and the working class. (Cohn)
Even more so, the United States had started to intervene with their own form of government, Democracies. Throughout the Cold War, the United States had decided that Democracies in Latin American countries, such as Guatemala, The Dominican Republic, and Chile, as being “too radical”. (Cohn) Upsetting many Latin American people, the United States had intervened these governments with the US Military, or had sent guns, funds, and troops to serve in militaristic coups, started by the government’s military. This had caused peaceful means of reform to steadily come to an end, eventually leading to Latin American rebel groups’ uprisings and eventual civil wars.
In Cuba, in 1985, Fidel Castro rose to power, defeating Batista. This was a very pivotal, defining point in history, which truly demonstrates US foreign policy in Latin America. (Pettina) Fidel Castro and his dictatorship was a very strong push for radical social and economic policies. At the same time, it alienated the United States due to Cuba’s strong presence in the Latin American industry. (Pettina) Also, Castro’s administration signed economic and military alliances with the Soviet Union, further pushing out the United States, and eventually leading to the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. In December of 1961, Fidel Castro had formally announced to the world that he was a Marxist-Leninist. (Pettina) Because of this, all diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States were cut off, as well as a trade embargo was put into place by the Kennedy administration, between the two nations. On top of this, the United States had initiated several failed attempts to isolate the nation from other Latin American countries.
In April 1961, the defeat of the CIA-led force, made up of anti-Castro rebels at the Bay of Pigs showed the United States that Cuba was not a force to be messing with, as well as opened up a major propaganda opportunity for the communistic powers of the world. (Pettina) Castro had believed that this was an introduction to a full-scale United States military attack. Because of this, he had asked Nikita Krushchev to design and arm Cuba with the latest in militaristic technology, Nuclear Missiles. (Pettina) When word of these scheduled plans was Brough up to the United States’ attention, this had eventually led to the Cuban Missile Crisis, as well as the American removal of Nuclear Missiles in Turkey. (Pettina)
Because of the United States radical and very present attempts to gain influence and control over South America, over thirty separate radical guerrilla movements had appeared, with Marxist ideology throughout the region. These groups had received funds, arms, and power from Cuba and indirectly the Soviet Union. (Pettina)
A first “wave” of guerrilla movements was set in around 1964. Very unsuccessful, these revolutions ended with the death of radical leader, Che Guevara in Bolivia in 1967. The second wave struck in the mid 1970s to mid 1980s by enforcing the idea of a natural and slow process of gaining control through the social, political, and economic conditions of the nation. The only successful attempt in gaining control though the second wave, was in Nicaragua. (Rinna) The Sandinistas gained power and exiled the Somoza family in 1979, whom had ruled the nation for over forty-five years. Because of strongly opposed parties, both domestically and internationally, this attempt was very short-lived and unsuccessful in the long run. Because of the United States’ strong influence at the time, they had successfully led the Sandinista rule to an end in the election of 1990. (Rinna)
Latin American civil wars had quickly become dark places between radical guerrilla movements, backed by the lower class, and anticommunist crusades, backed by the upper and middle classes. (Rinna) The countries of El Salvador, Uruguay, Chile, Argentina, Guatemala, and Brazil were quickly turned into battlegrounds by militaristic dictatorships to remove the “Marxist Cancer.” (Loaeza) However very successful, these states turned into bloody battlegrounds, with some more than thirty thousand “disappearances” in Argentina, as well as over seventy-five thousand deaths in El Salvador’s ten year long civil war. (Loaeza) These deaths, and many more in other countries, were strongly attributed to militaristic regimes in Latin American Countries, waging war against their own citizens. (Loaeza)
To Conclude, The United States of America had a very strong impact on Latin American nations and their outcomes throughout the Civil War, purely out of the nation’s resentment for the U.S. The United States had caused a wide-scale civil war movements throughout by their involvement in Cuban Relations, as well as economic policies, and statements and support for groups in these nations to satisfy the US’ political agenda.