The Cold War, despite being not being an actual declared war, was a devastating time for humanity. It struck fear in the heart of people all over the world. Paranoia of the possible destruction of, not just whole communities and countries, but also the entire world lead was rapid. Danner and Berniers both depict how the Cold War affected Latin America extremely well in their respective pieces when writing about communism influence on everyone from the government to civilians, the military’s radical actions, and noncombatant life. Because, unlike America and the Soviet Union, the Cold War took place while there was much civil unrest; making its effect even worse on Latin America.
Communism was already very present in Latin America before the United States began to interfere with its affairs. Leftist and Communist activity from ordinary citizens, such as university professors and students, was apparent in Latin America but seemed to not be viewed as a major influence in the way people thought. It was the United States government who mostly were concerned about this activity. They fear that if one Latin America country fell into communism that the fall of all of Latin America into communism would only be the natural aftermath.
The fear of the spread of communism in western world, especially Latin American countries with weak democratic control, lead to a huge shift in the political and day to day life of the world. The United States could not risk communism spreading and went to many extremes to ensure so. They began backing political leaders in Latin America in hopes to keep democracy alive and strong but ended up doing quite the opposite. America supported leaders like Fulgencio Batista in Cuba, the Somoza family in Nicaragua, and...
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Looking back on the Cold War was completely unnecessary. The Cold War was simply what happens when people with irrational fears and extreme paranoia have power. The spread of Communism would not have happened any faster or slower whether the United States provided aid in Latin America because ultimately Communism influence in the United States would spread because of people in the United States. For not being an actual declared war, the Cold War was still deadly and it happening at the same time as many civil wars in Latin America only made matters worse because of how countries outside of Lain America pulled the region into the conflict. Ultimately of Communism was looked at critically, all the paranoia and its side effects that came with it could have been avoid and potentially could have saved thousands lives and millions of dollars wasted on the Cold War.
As stronger nations exercise their control over weaker ones, the United States try to prove their authority, power and control over weaker nations seeing them as unable to handle their own issues thereby, imposing their ideology on them. And if any of these weaker nations try to resist, then the wrath of the United States will come upon them. In overthrow the author Stephen Kinzer tells how Americans used different means to overthrow foreign government. He explains that the campaign & ideology of anti- communism made Americans believe that it was their right and historical obligation to lead forces of good against those of iniquity. They also overthrew foreign government, when economic interest coincided with their ideological ones (kinzer.215). These factors were the reasons behind America’s intervention in Iran, Guatemala, South Vietnam and Chile to control and protect multinational companies as well as the campaign against communism with little or no knowledge about these countries.
The United States were in favor of democracy and capitalism while the Soviet Union sought for the chances of influencing communism. The Cold War did not involve the use of physical arms, but was intensely fought. Propaganda, economic aids, Arms Race, and the creation of alliances were the main methods to fight the war. The use of propaganda played a crucial role in containment by criticizing the other power and raising the morale and spirit of their nation. The economic support for nations helped them recover from the desperate situation after World War II, which prevented the nations from falling under communism.
During the Cold War, the United States engaged in many aggressive policies both at home and abroad, in which to fight communism and the spread of communist ideas. Faced with a new challenge and new global responsibilities, the U.S. needed to retain what it had fought so strongly for in World War II. It needed to contain the communist ideas pouring from the Soviet Union while preventing communist influence at home, without triggering World War III. With the policies of containment, McCarthyism, and brinkmanship, the United States hoped to effectively stop the spread of communism and their newest threat, the Soviet Union. After the war, the United States and the Soviet Union had very different ideas on how to rebuild.
In the 1960s America, the pope of democratic faith, preached to the world about the evils of communism. When Marxist Salvador Allende lost by three percent in the Chilean election of 1958, the United States decided that the next election of 1964, could not be left in the hands of democracy. The United States began to work to stop Allende from becoming president. They went so far as to create projects to help train and organize so-called anti-communists among the peasants, laborers, students, and the media. Despite their efforts, in 1970 Salvador Allende was elected president through plurality. He became the first Marxist in the world to gain power in a free democratic election. Now you might ask, why would the United States be so interested in the politics of a third world country, furthermore the beliefs of one man. After all a person can only do so much, right?
The United States’ feared the spread of communism and attempted to do anything in its power to stop it. Before the United States was able to stop the spread of communist beliefs, the citizens of the United States government were becoming more and more paranoid.
The Cold War was fought between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, both struggling to assume a hegemonic role in the world while simultaneously attempting to undermine the power of the other. This war was fought by proxy in a variety of developing nations, including Vietnam and Guatemala, and was attributed to the differing ideologies of communism and socialism, and capitalism and democracy. Gods Go Begging (1999), by Alfredo Vea, examines the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War, while Francisco Tobar uses The Tattooed Soldier (1995) to explore the Guatemalan Civil War and the role the United States played in the governmental coup that precluded the war. Both authors show through specific descriptions and narrative lines that while the
During the second half of the twentieth century, when the Cold War was on its midst, the United States played an important role in world affairs. The increasing military power that the United States had during the Cold War, allowed it to influence the political decisions that many countries had during this time. The United States directly opposed the idea of communism, which the Soviet Union promoted. This conflict between this two great powers, lasted for five decades, and it tremendously affected the political ideologies of the world. Both countries tried to push their political and economic interest to as many nations as they could, especially those close to their borders. During this time, Guatemala was undergoing a social revolution with communist ideas. The revolution happened as a response to the social injustice committed by the United Fruit Company. The United Fruit Company started to lose land, due to a land reform passed b...
...icies from past Presidents. Furthermore, it was strongly detrimental to Latin America, for the reason that it eliminated the possibility of increasing Latin American exports to the United States, thereby destroying the hopes of Latin American countries focused upon President Nixon’s policy of “trade rather than aid.” During this time, the government justified itself by proclaiming that the United States needed to focus on avoiding involvement and learning from the mistakes made in Vietnam. All in all, over the course of the presidencies of Monroe, Roosevelt, FDR, and Nixon, the U.S. intervened in Latin America numerous times. Now, was it the right thing to do? At those specific points in time, the government thought so. Various arguments can be forged over the suitability of the actions of the U.S. during these times; however that is a discussion for another time.
Odd Arne Westad, Director of the Cold War Studies Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science, explains how the Cold War “shaped the world we live in today — its politics, economics, and military affairs“ (Westad, The Global Cold War, 1). Furthermore, Westad continues, “ the globalization of the Cold War during the last century created foundations” for most of the historic conflicts we see today. The Cold War, asserts Westad, centers on how the Third World policies of the two twentieth-century superpowers — the United States and the Soviet Union — escalates to antipathy and conflict that in the end helped oust one world power while challenging the other. This supplies a universal understanding on the Cold War (Westad, The Global Cold War, 1).
Kennedy proposed this cooperative program to replace prior failing efforts of the United States to aid Latin America. The intended alliance marked a shift toward a policy of expanded U.S. economic assistance to Latin America in the wake of Fidel Castro’s successful Communist revolution in Cuba. The United States was fearful of a communism spread due to the poverty and social inequities of the Latin American nations. The U.S. felt that the southern continent was ripe for violent radical political upheaval, which would eventually bring forth the spread of communism.
The Cold War stretched out from 1945 to 1990 and commenced during the time when Truman was the leader of the USA and Stalin the leader of the USSR. The USSR and the USA never went to war on their own soil but fought ‘proxy wars’ through allied countries. The first of these was in Korea. After the end of World War II both countries were keen to establish their strength in Europe and Asia. Both were interested in maintaining their markets and controlling the military might of the other side. Both were also committed to winning the battle of ideas: communism vs. capitalism. In an attempt to prevent communism taking hold in Korea general McArthur quadrupled his forces there. The USSR responded by sending over 1 million soldiers. Today Korea is still divided into the communist north and capitalist south. . Further proxy wars were fought in Angola, Nicaragua and Afghanistan. This was particularly shown during the USSR’s occupation of Afghanistan. This occurred in 1979. In response the USA supported the Mujahedeen or Afghani ‘freedom fighters’ dragging out the war. What would have been a fairly easy takeover for the USSR became a long and protracted war due to the USA involvement. The USSR was finally defeated by the Afghanis ten years later.
The Cold War was an argument between the Soviet Union and the United States of America after WWII. During WWII the USA and the Soviet Union were allies fighting a common cause: Adolph Hitler who was attempting to overthrow the surrounding countries. Although the USA and the Soviet Union were allies, the relationship between the two countries was very tense (What Was). Neither country trusted the other. After WWII their relationship became even more tense due to the building of new weapons capable of destroying entire countries.
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a major event in U.S History that almost led to nuclear destruction. It was over a period of thirteen days in which diplomats from the U.S and the Soviet Union were trying to reach a peaceful resolution so that they wouldn’t have to engage in physical warfare. The crisis was the hallmark of the Cold War era which lasted from the 1950’s to the late 1980’s. The Cold War was a power struggle between the U.S and Soviet Union in which the two nations had a massive arms race to become the strongest military force. The U.S considered Communism to be an opposing political entity, and therefore branded them as enemies. Khrushchev’s antagonistic view of Americans also played a big role in the conflict. The Cold War tensions, coupled with a political shift in Cuba eventually lead to the military struggle known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Cuban Missile Crisis was the point of most tension and near collapse causing the Cold War to almost shift from a passive and underground struggle to a violent and catastrophic one.
While, on the other hand, the United States just wanted to stop the spread of communism, which they felt, would spread rapidly throughout the world if they did not put an end to it soon. Both the United States and the Soviet Union wanted to avoid WWIII in the process of trying to achieve their goals. The Cold War was failed by the Soviet Union for many reasons, including the sudden collapse of communism (Baylis & Smith, 2001.) This sudden collapse of communism was brought on ultimately by internal factors. Soviet Union president Gorbachev’s reforms: glasnost (openness) and perestroika (political reconstruction) ultimately caused the collapse of the Soviet Empire.
Third world countries became the perfect battleground for cold war proxy battles during the early 1940’s to late 1990’s. United States wanted to flex its political muscle and try to curtail the spread of Soviet Communism in the developing nations. Most of the nations in developed world had already made their political and socio-economic stand regarding the form of governance and leadership pursued. Underdeveloped nations in Asia, Latin America and Africa were still vulnerable and easily influenced in terms of ideologies and political direction. Most nations in Latin America like Chile were recovering from colonialism and thus logistic, economic and political aid from powerful nations to propel their economies which made it easy for Americans and Russians to act as their “saviors’”. The quest for global dominance had intensified between United States and USSR and the shift was focused to developing nations like Chile. Both Americans and Russians used different mechanisms to enhance their propaganda and support the regimes which were friendly to them and used any means necessary to topple hostile regimes. CIA used covert operations in Chile and most of the Latin nations to plant their puppet leaders in order to safeguard their foreign policy interests and maintain dominance. Military coups and social unrests were planned, orchestrated and executed with the assistance of CIA. The research paper tries to critical analyze the impact of the cold war on Chile and influence of United States.