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.