US+in+Latin+America

USA In Latin America ==== ==== DURING THE COLD WAR! BY, JON LUKS

Guatemala

During the cold war the United States began using the CIA to intervene in Latin America and overthrow communistic leaders.This was how the United States planned to prevent Communism from spreading to Latin American Countries. A good example of an intervention in Latin America would be the plan to overthrow Jacobo Arbenz Guzman in Guatemala. America began planning for an intervention in Guatemala began in 1952. The President of Nicaragua began asking for United States’ help to overthrow the democratic president of Guatemala, Jacobo Arbenz Guzman. Guzman was not Communistic himself but he supported Communists and their ideas. US knew that Jacobo Arbenz Guzman was creating land reforms and freedom for the communist party, so they began to grow worried with the fact of Communism spreading in Latin America.So the United States planned to take down Arbenz quickly, but people close to him found out about the plan which caused the situation to become more complicated. Once it was known to Arbenz that the United States was going to try to overthrow him he began to increase his power. Even though the CIA failed once to overthrow Arbenz, they didn't give up. They planned an aggressive plan to overthrow Arbenz and got help to do that from the Eisenhower administration. Instead of just containing Communism the United States got a new foreign policy called the New Look Doctrine.


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The New Look Doctrine was a policy that instead of mass power of the Armed Forces it relied on lots of nuclear bombs to keep enemies at bay. They cut Naval Forces, cut down on ground forces, and increased Air Forces to save money. But since Eisenhower had this new plan he wanted to confront Communism more. Part of the New Look was to increase funds for covert operations. Covert operations were operations just like the one in Guatemala where the CIA is trying to overthrow a communistic leader. Now the CIA had more money to employ more soldiers in the aggressive plan they had to overthrow Arbenz. Eisenhower was convinced that the United States was threatened by Arbenz he launched the first undercover mission in Latin America. The operation was named PBSUCCESS and not only did the United States want to overthrow Arbenz and replace him with a hand picked leader, but they wanted to send a message to the Soviet Union that they wouldn't let Communism spread in the Western Hemisphere.

Even though that the United States wanted to oust the Communistic leader, Eisenhower wouldn't allow the CIA to use US troops in Guatemala. Instead the CIA had to create training camps in Nicaragua and Honduras for troops to invade Guatemala. They chose to create the camps in those two countries since they both border Guatemala. But the CIA still had a small number forces so the CIA began a propaganda campaign in Guatemala to convince the population of Guatemala that the forces that opposed Arbenz were invincible. The CIA also started a psychological battle with the people of Guatemala that supported Arbenz. Some of the things they did were phone warnings in the middle of the night to death threats.

Finally after years of preparation, on June 18, 1954, US trained troops invaded Guatemala to try to overthrow Arbenz. But when Arbenz noticed that his army gave up on him he resigned. He resigned on June 27th and quickly fled to Mexico. After America put Carlos Castillo Armas in control. Right after the situation was settled, CIA Director Allen W. Dulles met with Eisenhower to discuss what happened with PBSUCCESS. When the CIA began explaining the details of the program they exaggerated things to make them seem better. They bragged that only 1 US-trained soldier died in the invasion, when in reality about forty eight men died. But as a result the president and future presidents fell in love with covert operations and relied on them when faced with threats involving Communism in Latin America. PBSUCCESS became the model for future CIA operations in Latin America. But the one flaw in the plan was that 3 years after the Guatemalan army assasinated Castillo Armas and that sent Guatemala into a power struggle for years. Other Notable Covert Operations In Latin America BRAZIL   In Brazil The US also acted upon Communism. President of Brazil Joao Goulart was labeled a Communist after he became president after taking a government trip to China. His close military personnel began to call him a Communist and the US began to be more interested. Goulart's reform plan named the Basic Reform Plan wanted to socialize the profits of large companies to improve the lives of many Brazilians. But because of this he was labeled a "socialist" threat. Lyndon B. Johnson said that the US should take every step it can to try to aid the overthrowing of Goulart. (Which was eventually successful.) But not much is known about the CIA's involvement in Brazil since the details are still classified. CHILE  In Chile the United States was hostile to the fact that the Socialist President Salvador Allende was elected in 1970. Even before the election the United States implemented covert CIA agents into Chile to try to prevent/overthrow President Allende. They used propaganda to try to prevent Allende from being elected. The CIA implemented project FUBELT which was a plan to prevent Allende from becoming president and promoting a military coup in Chile. But when Allende was elected fighting ensued and eventually Allende committed suicide. Pinochet assumed power in Chile. The US was in peace once again!:) media type="youtube" key="nJwrW2I5lmA" width="425" height="350"

IMPACT: The Impact that the United States's involvement had in Latin America is that the US showed the Soviets that they wouldn't allow any form of Communism close to its borders or anywhere outside the Soviet Union. But they definitely would NOT allow communism to spread to the western hemisphere. This was a big deal since if the United States didn't prove they were effective at stopping Communism, the Soviet Union definitely would have spread Communism the Latin America to gain leverage on the United States. Just like in the Cuban Missile Crisis where the soviets were close enough to put America in harms way. Who knows what would've happened??? (A WAR MAYBE!!??!!) The main reason that this had an impact on the war though was that Communism wasn't allowed to spread and if it did so it would've been bad for the US. Without the US using the CIA in Latin America then the "war" wouldn't have remained a stalemate between the US and the SU.

Significance: The significance of the United States in Latin America during the Cold War would have to be that after US involvement in most of the Latin American countries they were involved in, years of power struggles ensued. This sent countries in poverty because there was no stable government which is in reality the base or foundation of a country. A good example of this is when the US intervened in Guatemala they overthrew Arbenz and replaced him with Carlos Castillo Armas after the US left Armas was assassinated 3 years later and Guatemala had a power struggle for years. Also if the US allowed Communism to spread they would have been more threatened to go to war with the SU.

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Pedia, Wiki. "1973 Chilean coup d'état." //Wikipedia //. N.p., n.d. Web. april 30, 2012.<[] >.

Pedia, Wiki. "1964 Brazilian coup d'état." // Wikipedia //. N.p., n.d. Web. april 30, 2012. 

 Hanes, Sharon M., and Richard C. Hanes. //Cold War Almanac//. 1. Farmington Hills: The Gale Group, Inc., 2004. N.. Print

 Donaldson, Gary A.//America at War since 1945// // Politics and Diplomacy in Korea, Vietnam, and the //// Gulf War //. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1996. 26, 61. Print.