US Foreign Policy

Question 1

US Foreign Policy Pre 1945 (3)

Answer 1

1. Monroe Doctrine (1823) - > Colossus of the North (1898 Cuba = protectorate, 1903 Panama Canal)
2. Roosevelt Corollary (1904) - > Good Neighbour (1933-45) - > Act of Chapultepec (1945)
3. Canada: War of 1812, border controversies, yet WW2 improved relations

Question 2

Truman’s Foreign Policy Towards Latin America (3)

Answer 2

1. Rio Treaty (1947) - collective security agreement where an attack on one American nation would constitute an attack on all and merit resistance if two-thirds of them agreed on action. Brazil, Chile and Cuba banned Communist organisations and cut off diplomatic ties with USSR in 1948.
2. Organization of American States (1948) - represented hemispheric unity, admin and military strategy, charter against US domination
3. Point IV Technical Assistance programme yet downgraded LA with Asia and Africa ($79 million compared to rest of the world’s $18 billion). Criticized by the ECLA.

Question 3

Eisenhower’s Foreign Policy Towards Latin America (9)

Answer 3

1. Little aid to LA, relied on private capital yet US private investment in LA was $1.4 billion (1953-56) compared to $3.4 billion in Western Europe
2. Use of covert operations in Guatemala
3. Payed off Bolivian Revolutionaries - Bolivia became the biggest recipient of US foreign aid
4. Nixon’s first visit to LA (1955): impressed by Batista and Somoza
5. Nixon’s second visit to LA (1958): US economic recession hit LA hard, 10 minutes late to Frondizi’s inauguration, 2,000 angry Peruvian students, mob of 4,000 angry Venezuelans, Operation Poor Richard
6. Stephen Ambrose: visit was “all about theatre.”
7. Kubitschek and OPA: sought a LA style Marshall Plan yet refused as too expensive ($3 bill for Brazil)
8. Establishment of the Inter-American development bank (1959) - $1 billion in capita
9. Act of Bogota - recommendations for social change

Question 4

US actions in Guatemala (1954) (10)

Answer 4

1. Huge inequality existed between the whites and mestizo and workers (2% yet owned 70%)
2. US United Fruit Company: El pulpo, dominated ports, railways, shipping, communication, paying minimal tax, low wages to 40,000 workers who were forced to pay for company accommodation and health care.
3. 1944 Nationalist Liberal Revolution led by Juan Arevalo who instituted reform and allowed trade unions and strikes
4. Arbenz takes over in 1950 and expropriates 15% of United Fruit’s unused land, offering $600,000 yet was declared to be worth $16 million.
5. Guatemala was politically isolated through OAS meeting 1954
6. CIA spends $5-7 million in training 100 Guatemalans led by Castillo Armas (3 yrs). June 1954 invasion with aerial support and propaganda.
7. Schlesinger: US was motivated by need to support the United Fruit Company
8. Piero Gleijeses: Actions of the Communist Party
9. Donghi: end of good neighbour policy and continuation of “rapacious” US aggression
10. Walter La Faber: A turning point - “won the battle but lost the longer war.”

Question 5

Evaluate the success of Kennedy’s Alliance for Progress (10)

Answer 5

1. Kennedy proposed a $20 billion aid plan for LA (Eisenhower had only spent $500 million) which all OAS members except Cuba agreed to.
2. Chile received £1 billion, leading to the construction of 40,000 homes, education and land reform (15% of budget). By 1963, 35 million people benefited from the scheme
3. Hugh Brogan: propaganda triumph (Kennedy was received positively in Venezuela and Colombia - contrast to Nixon)
4. Yet unable to solve longstanding issues and organized impractical projects
5. Failed to inspire democracy (1960’s 10 overthrows e.g. spent $5 mill to oust Goulart in Brazil ($129 in aid) and Frondizi in Argentina)
6. LA resented the fact that the said was tied (60%) and between 1961-69, $4.8 billion not $10 billion had been spent
7. Military emphasis - jungle schools e.g. Canal Zone school, Fidel Castro Plan
8. Walter La Feber: the Alliance had “miserably failed”
9. Robert Dallek “cover” for US imperialism
10. Peace corps - 100,000 young Americans, 71% approval rating, Brogan: “useful educational experiment”

Question 6

Johnson’s Foreign Policy Towards Latin America

Answer 6

1. Downgraded the Alliance for Progress and forced LA to buy American goods
2. Spent $20 million to prevent the election of Goulart and gave $1.5 billion to the new regime
3. Riots broke out in Panama in 1964 (20 Panamanians died, 4 Americans)
4. Intervention in the Dominican Republic 1965: Supported Trujillo’s brutal regime (25,000 Hattians executed) and gave $5 million to the conservative junta. US sent 30,000 men to crush the rebellion of Bosch’s supporters.
5. Michael Grow: done to show US strength

Question 7

Nixon’s Foreign Policy Towards Latin America

Answer 7

1. Rockefeller Report - US and LA were drifting apart and US needed to show more tolerance for authoritarian rule
2. CIA granted $10 million to prevent Allende from coming to power (stood for president four times) but he was eventually elected in 1970 with 36% of the vote.
3. US companies had $1 billion invested in Chile
4. Allende organised a price freeze, leading to wages increasing, land reform and the nationalization of mines and banks.
5. US blocked credits and loans to Chile while Allende printed more money. Stopped $70 million in aid and funded strikes. Inflation reached 300% and stores ran out of basic goods. 1971 March of the empty pots. Overthrown in a bloody coup Sep 1973.
6. Authorized the continuation of covert CIA operations against Cuba e.g. pinprick raids, sabotage and recruitment
7. Walter LaFeber “Hemispheric unity…had fragmented”

Question 8

Carter;s Foreign Policy Towards Latin America

Answer 8

1. Aimed to replace “power politics” with “world order politics” and make human rights “the soul of our foreign policy”
2. Set up the Bureau of Human Rights in the state department which criticized nations such as the Argentina, Brazil and Chile for human rights abuses and would use economic pressure of the IMF, leading to the moderation of behaviour
3. Accept 100,000 Cuban refugees and thousands of “boat people” from Vietnam and Laos
4. However supported China, Cambodia, the Shah and Duvalier in Haiti despite repression. Even refused Hattian refugees.
5. In 1975, Ford tried to yield the Panama Canal but opposed by 38 senators. Carter was able to ratify two treaties despite 78% public opposition through radio phone ins. Violation in sovereignty in a clause stating that the US would keep the canal open after 1999.
6. Walter LaFaber “most important advance in USA-LA relations since the 1930s”
7. Nicaragua was one the most impoverished nations (life expectancy under 50, half of population were illiterate). Somoza was loyal to US (1972 troops to Dominican republic) but hated by people (appropriated $500 million in earthquake aid). Overthrown by Sandinistas in 1979, $80 million aid package
8. Edwin Williamson: Lack of US involvement was crucial to Sandanista’s success
9. Walter LaFaber: by the end his LA policy “lay in fragments”