Political Science

After the Second World War, the United States revised its foreign policy and initiated new international relations with Latin American countries (Smith, 45). During the Cold War the US launched the dreaded socialism and in some instances deposed egalitarian governments in Latin America which were considered to be obstacles towards the execution of US foreign policy. The Guatemalan and Chilean coup dtats of 1954 and 1973 respectively and the Nicaraguan contra illustrate the hostility of the US in Latin America (Smith, 47). The 1970s and 1980s conspicuously depict the era when authority was delegated to corporations and widespread divisions of political election systems was marked in Latin American states.

Immediately after the Second World War (WWII), the Cold war began with the US and the Soviet Union being the major rivals. The US influenced Latin American Policy through intimidations. Despite the fact that the US and Latin American regimes changed, the Cold War still continued (Rivas, 92). The war remained a significant force in Latin American politics for the entire half of the 20th century. The US possessed nuclear weapons in addition to other weapons of mass destruction. This weaponry endowment permitted the US to dictate the nature of government they wanted to rule Latin American states (Holden and Zolov, 212).

The US was determined to end leftists and communism in Latin America and it was determined to prevent expansionist of left-wing regimes from gaining power. During the WWII, leftists in Cuba, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Nicaragua among others gained popularity in their resistance to the US ideals and real possibilities of left-wing parties to gain power emerged. In retaliation and to compel these communist parties, the US passed several legislations which outlawed the proliferation of communism in Latin America (Holden and Zolov, 216).

In 1823, the US formulated the Big Brother Policy which united the Latin American countries and rallied them behind the US leadership and opened the Latin American markets to the American traders. Later at the beginning of the 20th century Theodore Roosevelt signed laws which restricted Latin American countries from political expediency and controlled the canal across Central America (Rivas, 99). In 1903 the US signed a treaty with the Colombia which enabled it to acquire Panama from the Colombians. This influential policy meant that if the Panamanian rebels revolted, the US had the authority to deploy her navy to aid for their independence (Rivas, 112). In acknowledging this feat, the Panamanians gave exclusive rights to the US for the control of the Panama Canal Zone (Smith, 52).

Shortly afterwards the US formulated the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine which gave the US exclusive authority to intervene in Latin American countries affairs (Holden and Zolov, 200). This doctrine allowed the US to use Latin America as an agency for spreading its commercial interests in the region while blocking the European supremacy from the region. Furthermore, the corollary decreed the unequivocal rights on the US to arbitrate in Latin American conflicts hence exercising the global police supremacy (Holden and Zolov, 198)

The Cold War emerged as the distinct phenomena in the US relations with the Latin America states because the dogmatic considerations obtained dominance over United States policy in the region which had lacked before. Between the 1940s and 1960s, rigid principles were the crucial factors in designing the US foreign policy towards Latin America. The triumph of the Cuban revolutionary necessitated the alteration of the US foreign policy. Consequently, in the ensuing formulation of its foreign policy towards Latin America, the US behaved as if it was under the scourge of ideological demons  (LaRosa and Finley, 345).

More often, the US deployed its military might to overthrow Latin American governments at the slightest provocation of its policies from the communist regimes from any Latin American country. The dominance of doctrines as the shaping factors in US relations with Latin America amplified the chances of US military intervention regardless of the costs. In this regard the US designed policies to acquire territories and influence to exclude their rivals, especially communists and to protect and advance the economic interests of its citizenry and its firms (Holden and Zolov, 219)

The US involvement and particularly the years characterized by the dollar diplomacy were inspired by the aspiration to promote US economic interests. Mostly the US enticed their firms to invest in Latin America and the good neighbor policy sought to encourage US economic interests in Latin America while seeking to construct the global alliance against the Axis powers during the Second World War (Smith, 55).

The Latin American countries ignored the US policies and designed and executed communist ideologies. These ideologies beleaguered the US foreign policy objectives towards Latin American countries in almost all the cases when the US deployed military forces to overthrow Latin American governments however the assassination of Rafael Trujillo of the Dominican Republic was the exception (Holden and Zolov, 220). In addition these Latin American countries chose to democratically elect their leaders thus displaying the US involvement as unwarranted. Besides, some countries such as Cuba inclined themselves with the Soviets and expropriated the US economic interests. The anti-communist crusade preached by the US failed to deter people from electing leaders with communist principles. The Peruvian and the Bolivian governments induced many expropriations and boosted their relations with the Soviet Union.