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    8 views7 pages

    Susanne Jonas

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    CHris

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Central America As a Theater of U.S. Cold War Politics Susanne Jonas Latin American Perspectives, Vol. 9, No. 3, Social Classes in Latin America, Part I: Roral Class Relations (Summer, 1982), 123-128. Stable URL: bhtp:flinks,jstor-org/sici?sici~0094-582X%28 198222%209%3A3%3C123%3 ACAAATOG3E2.0.CO%3B2-Q Latix American Perspectives is curtently published by Sage Publications, Inc. ‘Your use of the ISTOR archive indicates your acceptance of ISTOR’s Terms and Conditions of Use, available at htp:sseww jstor org/aboutiterms.html. ISTOR’s Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you hhave obtained prior permission, you may aot download an entie issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and ‘you may use content in the ISTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use Please contact the publisher eegarding aay fusther use ofthis work, Publisher contact information ray he abained at fips jstoronpournal-sagettl. Each copy of any part ofa JSTOR transenission must contain the same copyright tice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transtnission, ISTOR isan independent not-for-profit organization dedicated to creating and preserving a digital archive ot scholarly journals. For more information regarding ISTOR, please contact suppom@jstor org. hup:trwwjstororgy Sat Jul 9 21:00:30 2005 CENTRAL AMERICA AS A THEATER OF U.S, COLD WAR POLITICS by ‘Susanne Jonas* Central America today is « field upon which the deama of US. Cald Wer polities is being played out ir a most dangetaus manner. Particularly since the advent of the Reagan adrainistration—although in reality dating hack to the Catter/Bezezinski regime—the US, ruling class appears to have decided to make a stand aggainst international communism” in Central America; hence, the incessant effort ta “emonstrae" thatthe soutce of ihe steugsles in Central America is Soviei, Cuban, ot Nicaraguan “intervention But Central America is elso a battleground in which decades, centuries of exploitation and foreign domination are being challenged by popular resistance moveinents, ia which entire peoples have taken it upon themselves to defy the histric hegemony of the United States and its local ruling class allies, These resistance slrugpes, fest in Nicaragua and today in El Selvador and Guateriala, have reached the point where they cannot be “contained” by any US. measures short of literal genocide It is this combination of factors. in a capidly changing international eavironment, that has made Central Americs the focal point of world attention and, in ‘ sense, the touchstone of “East West” conflict es was the case in Vietnam fifteen years ago, We shall focus upon the explosive strugeles in Centtal America in the context of US. Cold War politics today. Although space is lecking for a comprehensive comparison with Cold War polities of the 1950s in Centeal America (specifically the 1954 U'S. intervention in Guatemala), we ete this as the beckgraund for understanding the present because it eeveals the way in which the world, and the position of the United States within the world, hes changed since the end of the Second World War “The thrust of these changes is that it is no longer possible to view Central America simply in terms of U.S. national interests nor as a simple conflict “in the backyard of the United States, as has historically heen tae case (and as was the case still with the 1954 intervention in. Guatemala}; todoy, the struggle in countries such as Fl Salvador ‘and Guatemala is not only eing regionslized but is being interaationalized, as the world has become more ttensnational; and as a result, the stakes of the conflicts in Gesteal America ace much higher 1s in this ight that we can try to make sense of “The auther, a Participating Editor of his journal, wishes to acknowledge the significant contribution of Marlene Dhxos, Dieeter of the Institute for the Study of Lebor and Economic Cri sls, whose general theoretical perspective and whose watings on the ‘ntertational situation, the ‘world capitalist crisis, and U.S. waking class history have formed an indispensable feamework for the analysis developed in this article, aa JONAS: COD War POLITICS ma Reagan administrtion poticies ‘We should larity atthe outset that we view the Cold We, old and new, not only 45 4 U.S. foveign policy, but also as integral to the domestic polices being applied to the working class within the United States. Therefore, paricularly today, given the significant changes in the world economy and the decline of U.S. hegemony since the US. defeat im Vietnam, the intertelotion between the workers) movement in the United States and the struggles in Central America is not simply a question of moral support by the former for the latter, iis grounded in objective historical and economic factors To summarize briefly the Cold War intervention af 1954: the U.S. action was

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