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    Latin America and The Cold War

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    Russell FromUp
    The US responded to the emergence of leftist movements in Latin America between 1945-1990 with reactionary and drastic measures driven by paranoia of Soviet influence expanding to the Western Hemisphere. Any remotely socialist actions by Latin American nations were viewed as a "Trojan Horse" meant to distract the US from a supposed imminent Communist takeover. The US secretly intervened in elections and power struggles through covert CIA operations like the PB Success terror campaign in Guatemala. These operations required huge investments to train dissidents. The US also took economic interests into account, as companies like United Fruit had close connections to government leaders and could convince the US to overthrow unfavorable governments under the guise of national security threats. Overall, unprecedented

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    Latin America and The Cold War

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    Russell FromUp
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    The US responded to the emergence of leftist movements in Latin America between 1945-1990 with reactionary and drastic measures driven by paranoia of Soviet influence expanding to the Western Hemisphere. Any remotely socialist actions by Latin American nations were viewed as a "Trojan Horse" meant to distract the US from a supposed imminent Communist takeover. The US secretly intervened in elections and power struggles through covert CIA operations like the PB Success terror campaign in Guatemala. These operations required huge investments to train dissidents. The US also took economic interests into account, as companies like United Fruit had close connections to government leaders and could convince the US to overthrow unfavorable governments under the guise of national security threats. Overall, unprecedented

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    The US responded to the emergence of leftist movements in Latin America between 1945-1990 with reactionary and drastic measures driven by paranoia of Soviet influence expanding to the Western Hemisphere. Any remotely socialist actions by Latin American nations were viewed as a "Trojan Horse" meant to distract the US from a supposed imminent Communist takeover. The US secretly intervened in elections and power struggles through covert CIA operations like the PB Success terror campaign in Guatemala. These operations required huge investments to train dissidents. The US also took economic interests into account, as companies like United Fruit had close connections to government leaders and could convince the US to overthrow unfavorable governments under the guise of national security threats. Overall, unprecedented

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    22 views2 pages

    Latin America and The Cold War

    Uploaded by

    Russell FromUp
    The US responded to the emergence of leftist movements in Latin America between 1945-1990 with reactionary and drastic measures driven by paranoia of Soviet influence expanding to the Western Hemisphere. Any remotely socialist actions by Latin American nations were viewed as a "Trojan Horse" meant to distract the US from a supposed imminent Communist takeover. The US secretly intervened in elections and power struggles through covert CIA operations like the PB Success terror campaign in Guatemala. These operations required huge investments to train dissidents. The US also took economic interests into account, as companies like United Fruit had close connections to government leaders and could convince the US to overthrow unfavorable governments under the guise of national security threats. Overall, unprecedented

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
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    Renee Cai

    Mr. Dollar
    IB History of the Americas IV
    10 March 2015
    Latin America and the Cold War
    Prompt: Explain the US response to the emergence of leftist movements in Latin
    America between 1945-1990.
    American involvement against socialist or communist movements in Latin America
    during the Cold War period was composed of reactionary, unnecessarily drastic measures that
    were spurred by paranoia and by a fear of Soviet influence expanding to the Western
    Hemisphere. From Arbenzs desires to modernize Guatemala to Allendes nationalization of
    Chilean industry, any remotely socialist action by Latin America was viewed as a Trojan Horse
    meant to distract the United States from the supposedly imminent Communist takeover of all
    Latin American nations.
    It was not uncommon for America to secretly intervene in power struggles and
    democratic elections through the means of covert CIA operations. These operations, such as
    the PB Success terror campaign in Guatemala, required an enormous investment of money,
    troops, and resources for training dissidents on Americas own part. Furthermore, in places such
    as Nicaragua with the unpopular Somoza as well as Guatemala with Arbenz, the United States
    took interest not only because they wished to dissuade the growth of what they viewed as a
    Soviet bid for power but also because of economic interests as well; the United Fruit Company,
    with close connections to John Foster Dulles (Head of the State department) and Alan Dulles

    (one of the leaders of the CIA), had the power to convince Eisenhower to give the greenlight for
    overthrowing unfavorable governments in Latin America under the pretext of a threat to national
    security.
    Overall, the enormous, unprecedented expenditures made in Latin America (several
    trillion across the entire time period) and the amount of interference in the political systems of
    independent Latin American nations by the United States was caused by a fear of Communist
    growth as well as the desire to maintain strong economic holdings in the region.

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