Latin America in the Global Context: World War II and the Early Cold War

Components of a High-Quality History Essay

The beginning of the session reviewed the hallmarks of an "A plus" history essay for university exams. To achieve this grade, students must go beyond simply name-dropping people or events.

• Contextualization: Historians value the background. An essay must provide the relevant historical setting to explain what was happening during the period in question.
• Detailed Analysis: For every example provided, there must be an accompanying in-depth analysis. The writer should explain why the people, events, or agents mentioned are significant.
• Structure and Transitions: While transition sentences are highly appreciated for flow, the primary focus is on the logical progression of arguments.
• Cohesion of Argument: The essay must answer the full question and consistently tie every detail back to the central thesis or main argument, particularly at the beginning and end of each paragraph.
• Specific Evidence:
  • Numerical Data/Statistics: Use statistics and numbers from course materials (e.g., textbooks) to demonstrate thorough reading.
  • Specific Regions: Distinguish between countries and regions (e.g., noting that Latin America is a region, not a single country).
  • Dates and Time Periods: Including specific years or rough time periods helps frame the argument chronologically.
  • Actionable Events: Mention specific wars or events rather than speaking in vague generalities.
• Effective Conclusions: A conclusion does not need to be overly elaborate, but it must restate the main argument clearly to reinforce the thesis to the reader.

US Foreign Policy: The Good Neighbor Policy

The lecture transitioned into Unit $2$, beginning with Latin American relations during the World War II era.

• Definition: The Good Neighbor Policy was the primary US foreign policy framework toward Latin America during the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
• Core Principles: It was defined by the principles of non-intervention and non-interference in the domestic affairs of Latin American nations.
• Practical Applications:
  • Following his inaugural address, Roosevelt moved to end the Platt Amendment in Cuba.
  • The United States withdrew Marines from countries such as Haiti.
• Temporal Scope: This period of non-intervention was relatively brief, effectively ending after World War II as the Cold War prompted a return to increased US interventionism.

Latin America and the Rise of Fascism

To understand Latin America's involvement in World War II, one must understand the global context of the rise of fascism.

• Fascism Defined: A political ideology characterized by militaristic nationalism (hyper-nationalism) and a belief in a strict social hierarchy.
• Spread: Fascism proliferated across Europe during the $1920s$ and $1930s$, most notably in Germany under Adolf Hitler and Italy under Benito Mussolini.
• Outbreak of War ($1939$): The war began when Germany invaded Poland. Due to a series of alliances, European powers quickly entered the conflict. The primary belligerents were:
  • Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, and Japan.
  • Allied Powers: Included the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and later the United States.

Latin American Participation in World War II

Latin American nations varied in their responses to the war, ranging from active military involvement to strategic neutrality.

• US Influence and Support:
  • Lend-Lease Act ($1941$): This act allowed the US to supply Allied powers with food, oil, and munitions. Many Latin American countries eventually participated in these economic networks.
  • The Bracero Program: A negotiated labor agreement between the US and Mexico. Manual laborers, known as Braceros, traveled to the United States to work in agriculture and the railroad industries to fill labor shortages caused by the war. This was a temporary initiative that promised a minimum wage, housing, and protection.
• Military and Strategic Actions:
  • Brazil: The FEB (Força Expedicionária Brasileira) sent approximately $25,000$ men to fight for the Allies. Deployed in $1944$, they primarily participated in the liberation of Italy under US command.
  • Panama: Tens of thousands of US troops were stationed at the Panama Canal to ensure its safety from Axis aggression, as it was a critical strategic asset.
  • Internal Security and Repression: In Peru, Japanese families were forcibly removed from their homes and sent to internment camps within the United States. Although the war ended in $1945$, these camps did not close until $1948$.
• Entry and Neutrality:
  • Mexico and Brazil joined the war officially in $1942$.
  • Venezuela maintained neutrality until February $1945$, joining just before the war's conclusion.
  • Paraguay and Chile (initially) showed some sympathy toward the Axis powers before domestic and international pressures shifted their stances.
  • Dominican Republic: Notably, the town of Sosúa in the Dominican Republic became one of the few places in the world to offer refuge to those fleeing the Holocaust.

The Early Cold War and Ideological Conflict

The end of World War II gave way to the Cold War ($1945$-$1991$), a period of geopolitical tension between the US and the Soviet Union.

• Containment Policy: The US foreign policy aimed at preventing the spread of communism worldwide.
• The Marshall Plan: A US-initiated program providing massive funding to rebuild European countries post-World War II to prevent them from falling under Soviet influence.
• Domino Theory: The belief that if one country in a region fell to communism, neighboring countries would follow like a row of toppling dominoes.
• Bipolarity: The world was divided into the Democratic/Capitalist West (US-led) and the Communist East (influenced by the Soviet Union). This divide was solidified in $1949$ when the Soviets exploded their first atomic bomb.

Timeline of the Cold War in Latin America

Students constructed a timeline of major events representing the Cold War's impact on the region:

• $1947$: Rio Treaty. A mutual defense pact where American nations promised to assist each other if attacked.
• $1954$: Guatemalan Coup. The overthrow of the democratically elected Jacobo Árbenz (detailed below).
• $1959$: Cuban Revolution. Fidel Castro overthrew a dictatorship, resulting in Cuba becoming the first communist state in Latin America.
• $1961$: Bay of Pigs Invasion. A failed US-backed attempt to overthrow Castro.
• $1962$: Cuban Missile Crisis. A $13$-day nuclear standoff between the US and the USSR over Soviet missiles based in Cuba.
• $1964$: Brazilian Dictatorship. A military coup overthrew the president, leading to a $21$-year dictatorship.
• $1970$: Election of Salvador Allende (Chile). Allende became the first democratically elected socialist leader in the region.
• $1973$: Chilean Coup. Allende was overthrown with US influence, leading to a long military dictatorship.
• $1976$-$1983$: The Dirty War (Argentina). A military dictatorship conducted a campaign of state terrorism against civilians, involving mass human rights abuses.
• $1975$-$1980s$: Operation Condor. A transnational operation between South American military dictatorships to track, kidnap, and assassinate political opponents.
• $1979$: Sandinista Revolution (Nicaragua). A successful socialist revolution that ended a long-standing dictatorship.
• $1980s$: Salvadoran Civil War. A conflict between the government and leftist (socialist) guerrilla fighters.
• $1989$: US Invasion of Panama. "Operation Just Cause," justified by the US on the grounds that President Manuel Noriega was involved in drug trafficking.
• $1991$: End of the Cold War. Marked by the collapse of the Soviet Union following internal reforms by Mikhail Gorbachev.

Case Study: Guatemala's "Ten Years of Spring"

This period ($1944$-$1954$) represented a brief era of democracy and progressive reform in Guatemala.

• Pre-Spring Context ($1931$-$1944$): Guatemala was ruled by the absolute dictatorship of Jorge Ubico Castañeda, a military officer who granted immense power to the United Fruit Company (UFCO).
• Juan José Arévalo ($1944$-$1951$):
  • An educator who returned from exile.
  • Passed a progressive constitution that allowed multi-party systems and expanded suffrage (though it excluded illiterate women).
  • Maintained "leftist sympathies" but was not a communist.
• Jacobo Árbenz ($1951$-$1954$):
  • Arévalo’s former Minister of Defense and the second democratically elected president.
  • Initiated Decree $900$ (Agrarian Reform Bill) in $1952$ to modernize the economy.
  • The bill targeted unused land on estates larger than $673$ acres.
  • Compensation Irony: The government compensated landowners based on the value they had declared on their tax assessments. Many wealthy landowners and UFCO had consistently undervalued their land to avoid taxes, and were subsequently paid those low values for the redistributed land.

The United Fruit Company (UFCO) and the $1954$ Coup

• History of UFCO: Founded by Minor Keith (who built railroads in Costa Rica) and later managed by Samuel Zemurray ("Sam the Banana Man"). By $1930$, it owned $3,500,000$ acres in Central America and Peru. It was known as El Pulpo (The Octopus) due to its reaching influence.
• Conflict with Árbenz: UFCO owned $550,000$ acres in Guatemala but used only $15\%$. The Guatemalan government redistributed $400,000$ acres of UFCO land to peasants using the tax-value compensation model.
• Operation PB Success ($1954$):
  • UFCO successfully lobbied the US government to intervene.
  • The Dulles Brothers: Secretary of State John Foster Dulles (who had economic ties to UFCO) and CIA Director Allen Dulles orchestrated the coup.
  • The CIA trained and funded a force of approximately $500$ men led by Carlos Castillo Armas.
  • The US justified the coup by framing Árbenz's land reform as a "communist" threat, though Árbenz was not an actual member of the Communist Party.
• Outcome: Árbenz resigned in June $1954$; Armas became a dictator. This ended democracy in Guatemala and sparked nearly $40$ years of civil war and genocide against the Maya people, lasting until $1996$.

Questions & Discussion

Q: How did the United States or the Soviet Union try to influence Latin America?

• Student Responses: Through propaganda (claiming their system is better), offering allies and resources (incentivizing), threatening to withdraw protection/support (coercion), direct intervention/conquering, or via indirect methods like using spies or "whispering in the ear" of local dissidents to keep their own hands clean.
• Instructor Note: This indirect method of fighting through a third country is known as a proxy war.

Q: What themes emerged from the Cold War timeline?

• Student Responses: A cycle of dictatorships, coups, and revolutions; heavy foreign intervention by the US and USSR; the recurring role of political instability.

Q: Regarding the John Foster Dulles speech on the Guatemalan Coup—what was the tone and strategy?

• Student Discussion: The tone was described as "exaggerated," "manipulative," and "flat." Students noted that Dulles painted the situation in black and white, framing it as a battle for the "freedom of the entire world" against an "evil" communist threat. He used terms like "asylum" to make the previous government look dangerous.
• Instructor Observation: The irony is that the US intervened in the name of promoting democracy, but the direct result of the intervention was the destruction of a democratic system and the installation of a dictatorship.