Forgotten battlegrounds of the Cold War: Latin America

If the Cold War were a chess game, Latin Americans were often the pawns …

Long before the Cold War began, American president James Monroe had introduced the now-famous “Monroe Doctrine” in 1823. This doctrine said, in essence, that “the American continents … are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers.” (Source: Monroe Doctrine, 1823) Theodore Roosevelt later added a corollary of his own to this doctrine in 1904, in response to the Venezuelan Crisis of 1902-1903. This “Roosevelt Corollary” basically said that “Chronic wrongdoing, or an impotence which results in a general loosening of the ties of civilized society, may in America, as elsewhere, ultimately require intervention by some civilized nation, and in the Western Hemisphere the adherence of the United States to the Monroe Doctrine may force the United States, however reluctantly, in flagrant cases of such wrongdoing or impotence, to the exercise of an international police power.” (Source: Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, 1904)

Fidel Castro visits United States, 1959

Keeping European powers (like the Soviet Union) out of the New World …

The United States has not always adhered to this doctrine, but it has often been involved in Latin American politics under the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine (and the original, for that matter). During the Cold War, the Soviet Union actually supported left-wing regimes throughout Latin America, and were thus interfering in the Americas. True adherence to the Monroe Doctrine thus required that we try to keep them out of the Americas, and prevent communism from gaining a foothold in our own “backyard.”

Map of Latin America

Guatemalan coup d'état (1954), and communist revolution in Cuba (1959)

But this is not to say that all left-wing Latin American regimes were tied to the Soviet Union. On the contrary, some of them were operating more or less independently from Moscow. Guatemala elected a left-wing president named Jacobo Árbenz in 1951, who instituted some land reforms that granted property to some landless peasants. Soon after he was inaugurated, Árbenz also legalized the communist “Guatemalan Party of Labour,” which reinforced an American perception that he was indeed a communist. Dwight Eisenhower, then the President of the United States, thus authorized the CIA to carry out “Operation PBSUCCESS” in 1953. The CIA soon armed, funded, and trained a force of 480 men led by Carlos Castillo Armas. When they invaded Guatemala, they did not have much success in battle, but they did have success in “psychological warfare.” The Guatemalan army refused to fight because of this “psychological warfare” campaign, so there was a successful “coup d'état” in Guatemala in 1954. The coup installed Carlos Castillo Armas as the new president. But in some ways, he proved to be even worse than the man that he had supplanted, and cracked down on the new democracy. It had great effects on Latin American politics, but the events in distant Cuba proved even more influential on them. There was a Cuban Revolution which ousted President Fulgencio Batista in 1959, and led to the installation of Fidel Castro as the new president. It was not initially tied to Moscow, but the revolution later became communist in an attempt to gain Soviet economic backing. The attempt worked, and at the time that I write this, Cuba has thus been communist ever since.

President Eisenhower and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, who supported the Guatemalan coup

Brazilian coup d'état (1964), and Dominican Civil War with American intervention (1965)

In 1960, President João Goulart had been elected the vice president of Brazil, but when the previous president resigned in 1961, João Goulart then became the new president. He was a member of the Brazilian Labour Party, and was often accused of being a communist. Thus, the United States backed a “coup d'état” in Brazil in 1964, which installed a right-wing military junta in his place. There were no elections in Brazil for years after this. Later, in the Dominican Republic, there was a Dominican Civil War in 1965. It began when one of the country's former presidents helped to depose the sitting president. There were allegations that the rebels had foreign support, which prompted the United States to intervene there. President Lyndon Johnson thus sent American troops to fight there in 1965. After the war ended, there was an election there in 1966, which elected Joaquín Balaguer as the new president. After an occupation of the country by the Organization of American States, the United States soon withdrew from the country. The United States had sustained fewer than 50 deaths during the campaign, so LBJ's intervention had fared somewhat better there than his ill-fated intervention in Vietnam.

American soldiers in a firefight in the Dominican Civil War, 1965 (child hides under a jeep)

Uruguayan coup d'état (1973), and Chilean coup d'état (also 1973)

In 1973, there were two major “coups d'état” in Latin America. One was in Uruguay in June, and the other was in Chile in September. The coup in Uruguay did not have as large of an effect, since it just transformed Juan María Bordaberry from the nominal president into the de facto president. He closed the parliament, and ruled with the assistance of a junta of military generals. Since the official reason for doing so was to crack down on a Marxist guerilla movement, historians see this as a part of the Cold War, even though there were probably no ties to the Soviet Union at this time. All associations with the trade unions were declared illegal and banned; while the trade union leaders were killed, imprisoned, or exiled. The Constitution of Uruguay of 1967 was practically suppressed at this time. But the later coup in Chile that year proved to be much more important for the larger Cold War. The Marxist president Salvador Allende was totally ousted as president of Chile, and soon after committed suicide, according to eyewitness testimony. Democracy was largely overthrown there, and the administration of Augusto Pinochet cracked down upon taking over. Some call this one of the most violent events in the history of Chile. Pinochet would later become one of the main participants in the American-backed “Operation Condor.” For more than two decades in the Cold War, the United States backed a campaign of political repression in Latin America called “Operation Condor.” Time does not permit us to go into it here, but I will say briefly that it went from 1968 to 1989.

The bombing of La Moneda, in the 1973 Chilean coup d'état

Argentine coup d'état (1976), and handover of the Panama Canal (1977)

One person who had taken part in the earlier Cuban Revolution was Che Guevara, a communist revolutionary from distant Argentina. He had attempted to spread violent communist revolution to other countries in Latin America, but was killed in Bolivia in 1967. It is with this background in mind that I turn to the administrations of the Peróns in Argentina. Juan Perón is most famous today as the husband of Eva Perón, dramatized in the Hollywood movie “Evita.” (This film, incidentally, is famous for the song “Don't Cry For Me, Argentina.”) After the death of his more famous second wife Eva (also known by the nickname “Evita”), Juan Perón married his third wife Isabel Perón, who succeeded him as president at the time of his death. Isabel Perón is thus the one who was ousted in the “coup d'état” in Argentina in 1976. She is still alive at the time that I write this. In 1976, the coup replaced her with Jorge Rafael Videla. I will also briefly mention Jimmy Carter's handover of the Panama Canal – some would say “surrender” – in the Torrijos–Carter Treaties of 1977.

Oath of Jorge Rafael Videla as President of Argentina, 1976

Falklands War (1982), and American invasion of Grenada (1983)

Since 1841, the British had controlled the Falkland Islands, off the coast of South America. Most of those on the islands were descended from the British, and strongly favored British sovereignty there. But Argentina also asserted its own claim over the islands. Thus, in 1982, Argentina tried to take the Falkland Islands from Britain. Thus, for a few months in 1982, Margaret Thatcher sent British troops to fight in the Falklands War. They soon reclaimed the islands, and Argentina soon surrendered. However, both countries still assert some claims over the Falkland Islands today, although they are not currently fighting over it. This is one of the few areas in which Ronald Reagan ever disagreed with something that Margaret Thatcher did. There would soon be another brief disagreement. In 1983, this era saw one of its most high-profile interventions, as Ronald Reagan sent American troops to fight in Grenada. The Caribbean island of Grenada then had the British Queen Elizabeth II as nominal head of state, but it had become independent from the United Kingdom some years earlier in 1974. Thus, unlike others, I see no problem with Reagan's not consulting the British about this. A Marxist-Leninist named Maurice Bishop seized power there in a coup in 1979. But in 1983, hard-line military junta elements captured and executed him, along with a few other members of his regime. Reagan launched a military intervention, citing “concerns over the 600 U.S. medical students on the island” and a repeat of the earlier Iran hostage crisis. The invasion was over in a few days, and the Americans suffered fewer than 20 deaths in this campaign. British prime minister Margaret Thatcher disapproved of the invasion privately (and the lack of notice that she had received from the Americans), but she publicly supported it nonetheless. Political prisoners were freed, and the democratic elections were restored in 1984. This invasion was thus an American success.

US Marines with prisoners – Grenada, 1983

Ongoing Nicaraguan Revolution, and the Iran-Contra affair

But other American actions during the Reagan administration were a bit more controversial. From 1961 to 1990, there was a massive revolution in Nicaragua. On the one side were the leftist Sandinistas, and on the other side were the right-wing “Contras.” The United States Congress cut off the funding for the Contras with the Boland Amendment, and forbade the Reagan administration from sending further aid to them. But secretly, some of the members of the Reagan administration were still sending aid to the Contras. When the money ran out, they actually sold weapons to distant Iran to pay for it, which was also illegal. But in 1987, Reagan gave a speech that frankly acknowledged what had happened, and explained his silence by saying that it would have been “improper to come to [the public] with sketchy reports, or possibly even erroneous statements, which would then have to be corrected, creating even more doubt and confusion. There's been enough of that.” (Source: Speech of 4 March 1987) Some have long suspected that he knew more than he was letting on, but I find these allegations to be somewhat hard to believe. There is no hard evidence to back up any of these claims, even if there is substantial evidence against other members of his administration (which there is). As Reagan said at the time, though, he took “full responsibility for [his] own actions and for those of [his] administration. As angry as I may be about activities undertaken without my knowledge,” he said, “I am still accountable for those activities. As disappointed as I may be in some who served me,” he continued, “I'm still the one who must answer to the American people for this behavior.” (Source: Speech of 4 March 1987)

Contra Commandos in Nueva Guinea – Nicaragua, 1987

Conclusion: Latin America was a major battleground during the Cold War

So Latin America was a major battleground during the Cold War. Some conflicts in it were not much connected with the larger Cold War, while others were intimately connected with it. But if the Cold War were a chess game between the two superpowers, Latin Americans were often the pawns in it. The record of the American involvement is somewhat mixed here, with both successes and failures in spades. But on the whole, I think our involvement in Latin America had some positive results during this time. We were dealing with great threats in our own backyard, so to speak, and we prevented some of them from getting worse (although some are still around today). Although events in Latin America seldom justified sending American troops to fight on the ground (with only a few exceptions), there were other ways to get involved than actually sending combat troops. The United States was justified in protecting its interests during the Cold War, and keeping these threats from getting ever closer to American shores.

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A review of Robert Ryal Miller's “Mexico: A History” (book)

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Part of a series about

The Cold War

Berlin Blockade 1948-1949
Marshall Plan 1948-1951
Korean War 1950-1953
McCarthyism 1947-1956 (see “Espionage” post)
Cuban Revolution 1953-1959
Bay of Pigs 1961
Building of the Berlin Wall 1961-1962 (see “Eastern Europe” post)
Cuban Missile Crisis 1962
Nixon’s visit to China 1972
Vietnam War 1955-1975
Angolan Civil War 1975-2002
Soviet war in Afghanistan 1979-1989
“Able Archer 83” 1983
Reagan’s “Star Wars” program 1983-1993
Fall of the Berlin Wall 1989 (see “Star Wars” post)
Dissolution of the Soviet Union 1990-1991 (see “Star Wars” post)

Latin America in the Cold War

Eastern Europe in the Cold War
North Africa and the Middle East in the Cold War

South Asia and Indonesia in the Cold War
Nuclear weapons (1945 – the present)

Espionage (throughout the Cold War)
Space race (most of the Cold War)
Overview of the Cold War