Bailey Hardman

Sriya Shrestha
AMST 135
12/3/10

Final Question #2

The history of United States intervention in Latin America goes back to the late

nineteenth century, with US investments in the United Fruit Company. However, the

ideological battle of socialism and capitalism that was the Cold War, created a more

imminent need for the US to have control over Latin American politics. And though as time

progresses we see more humanitarian campaigns and programs (Alliance for Progress,

Carter’s humanitarian campaign), as late as the early nineties, US political and military

interventions are still prevalent. These interventions aren’t humanitarian attempts to

restore order and democracy to collapsing nations, but rather are designed to cater to what

the US needs politically and economically.

From the period of the 1950s to the 1990s (the Cold War) the United States directly

supported not the leaders of Guatemala, but its army. Better that the US supplies them with

weapons than the Soviets, right? In 1954, rather than support the democratically elected

leader of a country that has suffered political chaos for so long, the United States

intervened and ousted Jacobo Arbenz. The coup was orchestrated by the CIA in what the US

defends as a means to prevent the USSR from having a beachhead in the Western

Hemisphere. And while Arbenz’s policies leaned towards the socialist side, the US still had

an intense amount of control in the Guatemalan military. What many today argue is that the

prevention of communism in the Western Hemisphere was merely a front for protecting

the interests of UFCO (youtube, Crisis in Central America). Because Arbenz implemented

land reform that allowed the government to split up and allocate large plantations (most of
which were owned by UFCO), the company’s interests were very much at stake. Whether or

not the US intervened to prevent communism, or to protect UFCO, it is clear that its actions

did nothing to help the people of Guatemala. Their elected president was removed, and

they couldn’t utilize their own land.

Yet just a few years later, in 1961, President Kennedy implemented the Alliance for

Progress, aimed at transforming Latin American into a free and prosperous region.

Ultimately, the program was a failure in many respects. Land reform was resisted by elites,

health care was hindered by population growth, and probably the most striking, is the

emergence of military dictatorships rather than reformist civilian rule throughout the

region. Yet Latin American cannot take all the blame for the failure of the program.

Presidents after Kennedy were just as resistant to the program as were some of the Latin

American elite.

“Let us once again awaken our American revolution until it guides the struggles of

people everywhere-not with an imperialism of force or fear but the rule of courage and

freedom and hope for the future of man” (Modern History). These were the well-

intentioned words of Kennedy when he spoke of the Alliance for Progress. It is easy to see

why a program like Alliance for Progress was unsuccessful, considering both ends of the

spectrum were relatively uncooperative. What is difficult to understand is why as recently

as 1980, the United States had gone against Kennedy’s words and has acted in some ways

as an “imperialistic force,” once again in order to protect capitalism in the final years of the

Cold War. During the Nicaraguan Revolution, the US chose to back the contras, further

contributing to the violent civil wars taking place across the region. Reagan defended it by

saying said, “The Soviet Union underlies all the unrest that is going on” (Rosenfelder). Once
again, it is clear that while at times the actions of the United States may seem humanitarian

and helpful to the people of Latin America, in the end it will (just as every other nation

would do), act in its own interest, in order to maintain political, economic, and military

power.

Works Cited

"President John F. Kennedy: On the Alliance for Progress, 1961." Modern History

Sourcebook. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1961kennedy-afp1.html. Dec 2

2010.

Rosenfelder, Mark. “US Interventions in Latin America.” Just Thought You Should Know

About This. 1996. http://www.zompist.com/latam.html. Dec. 2 2010.

Crisis in Central American Pt. 1: Yankee Years.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/programs/info/311.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rb7XaF1rs1E&feature=related