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How did successive US foreign policies impact Latin America? (Johnson (The…

- - - - Cuba - In April 1961, a failed attempt to invade Cuba was launched by U.S.-backed Cuban exiles. Historians such as Walter LeFaber argue that this failed invasion in fact represented the sheer amount of support the Cuban Revolution had, while others argue that this impacted Latin America by allowing one of its countries to firmly secure a close alliance with the USSR, fuhrer allowing Castro's rule in Cuba to be secured. Later, as a result of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Latin America was impacted, Cuba more specifically, as Soviet ICBMs were removed from Cuba in exchange for the removal of American ICBMs from Turkey.
      - Brazil - Suspicions towards Goulart in regards to him potentially steering Brazil towards Communism dated back to July 1962, in which Kennedy (after meeting two of his advisers) concluded that the U.S. had to support paramilitary forces against Goulart, as Goulart refused to remove anti-American politicians in his government. Eventually (in the spring of the year following Kennedy's death) Goulart was overthrown by members of the Brazilian military, backed by U.S. efforts.
      - "The Panama School" - From 1950 to 1970, Latin American police and paramilitary forces were trained by U.S. programmes for the purpose of helping them combat anti-government insurgencies. As seen by the time period, this programme was active during the time of Kennedy's presidency, and much later (by 1976), much of the threats posed by these anti-government insurgency groups were crushed by forces led by the abundant number of right-wing military dictatorships in Latin America. It can be argued that this program, which which was active under Kennedy's presidency, impacted Latin America by (in the long term) allowing its countries to combat anti-government forces.
      - Budget - Under the Kennedy administration, more than $20 billion in aid was dedicated to Latin America over a period of 10 years, with the intention of helping nations in the region to adopt free market policies and liberalising themselves.
      - Trading - Latin American nations would often find themselves, after having received aid from the U.S., incapable of buying cheaper goods from places like Germany and Japan, but instead having to buy U.S. goods at significantly higher prices due to pressure being placed on them from the Kennedy administration. Many Latin American countries soon found themselves almost in fear of the programmes the Alliance had to offer next.
      - Colombia - Even though its president (Alberto Camargo) had attempted to carry out land reform, which ended up failing, Colombia still saw great economic growth thanks to funds acquired through the Alliance for Progress. However, the Alliance can bee seen as having brought mixed results to Colombia. While new schools were built thanks to the aid received from the Alliance, other problems such as low coffee prices, high unemployment and lacking industrial development remained unresolved, while Colombia remained significantly reliant on the U.S. economically.
      - Chile - President Alessandri of Chile became particularly enthusiastic after more than $1 billion in funds was provided by the Alliance for Progress. This would lead to an increase in the the number of public schools and university students, after Alessandri managed to persuade the Chilean Congress to redistribute expropriated fallow farmland to small farmers, and also authorise the construction of forty thousand housing units financed by both the Chilean government and private capital. It was evident that the Alliance for Progress had a positive impact on Chile.
      - Education - Many Latin American educators weren't fond of introducing the U.S. education system in replacement of theirs.
      - Argentina - Many observers to the Argentine military coup in 1962 speculated that the coup was provoked by a Washington-led austerity programme in an attempt to stabilise the economy. The Alliance for Progress was speculated as impacting Latin America by contributing to the occurrence of a military coup in Argentina in 1962. In fact, some would argue that the Alliance led to the gradual degradation of democratic values upheld by many Latin American countries, an example being Argentina.
      - Peru - After a military coup in July 1962 overthrew the democratically elected de la Torre, even though a right-wing military dictatorship took power, the Kennedy administration quickly resumed ties between Peru and the U.S., even though what had happened went against the principles meant to be upheld by the Alliance.
      - Nicaragua - The Alliance for Progress improved the economy, but only the Somoza dynasty, their friends and the middle and upper classes benefited.
- - - - Carlos Caszely - A famous Chilean football player, due to his left leaning views during the time of Operation Condor's activeness, his mother was kidnapped and taken to an unknown location. He also described how when the international press arrived at the infamous Chile Stadium (as it was known at the time), Chilean soldiers would bring out the prisoners imprisoned in places like the changing rooms within the stadium onto the stands, as if nothing bad was happening.
      - Adolfo Cozzi - Another Chilean victim of Operation Condor, Cozzi recalls how he witnessed a half-naked man hanging from a 3 metre tall pole being beaten by an air force official. It wasn't until the man couldn't be heard screaming that Cozzi concluded he was actually dead.
      - Guillermo Torres - Torres states that every person detained was at some point exposed to violence, some more intensely than others (some with electricity, some with beatings, others by gunshot wound(s)) somewhere in the stadium.
      - Dr Sheila Cassidy - An English doctor, Dr Cassidy was arrested in 1975 after treating the wounds of the second head of the radical leftist group MIR. She was taken to the infamous Villa Grimaldi by members of the Chilean secret police (DINA), stripped naked, tied to a bed and tortured on several occasions. She later stated that the nature of her torture also involved the electrocution of her vagina and uterus.
      - Other testimonies claimed that people were required to perform sexual acts on animals.
      - Zelmar Michelini - Exiled Uruguayan reporter and politician Zelmar Michelini was assassinated in Buenos Aires in May 1976 as part of Operation Condor.
      - Juan José Torres - Overthrown former socialist Bolivian president Juan José Torres was kidnapped, shot and assassinated in a small town in the outskirts of Buenos Aires in June 1976.
      - Orlando Letelier - Living in exile in the U.S. Letelier was assassinated in Washington D.C. in September 1976 due to his previous associations with Allende's government as an economist, diplomat and politician. He was known for his criticism of Pinochet's repressive rule of Chile.
  - - - Nixon authorised the continuation of covert CIA operations in Cuba, which involved pinprick raids, sabotage, recruitment and the organisation of resistance cells.
      - Even though the Soviet Union continued to expand their base at Cienfuegos, Nixon did not respond, as he already asserted his point that so long as nuclear missiles weren't stationed in Cuba, the U.S. would not invade it. Nixon's attention was instead drawn to supporting military regimes in Brazil.
      - It can be argued that a lack of U.S. foreign policy in Cuba contributed to the strengthening of ties between one of its nations (Cuba) and the Soviet Union, as Nixon didn't act in response to Soviet expansion and improvement of its military base in Cienfuegos.
    - - Mexican president Díaz Ordaz criticised Nixon's policy of intercepting drugs along the U.S.-Mexican border in 1969, arguing that it negatively impacted Mexican trade.
      - Mexican journalist Lorenzo Meyer argued in 2004 argued that since Mexico had such a politically stable rule (through repression and social reform), the U.S. refrained from criticising it.
      - Historian Burton Kirkwood argued in 2000 that Mexico at the time showed 'a growing willingness to to act independently of the USA.'