US+In+Latin+America

=**Introduction **=

During the Cold War Latin America was targeted by america by their governments to be taken over because of the fear of communism. Latin America was not trusted to take care of their own government and to stay democratic so the US stepped in by force.

=**﻿Significance **=  The significance of the Cold War in Latin America was that alot of commuism was prevented by the U.S helping out nations that were going to be negitivly influenced by dictators and communism. Also America helped the living conditions of many nations that were impoverished, by giving them aid such as guadamala so that communism would not thrive in the countries. Tension with some Latin American countries was solved with the aid that was given brought the countries closer togeather. Overall the U.S was mostly successful with their efforts to keep communism out of Latin America.

=**Guatemala **=  In Guatemala, the government was not very strong. The president Jacobo Arbenz Guzman was trying to restore the country to a peaceful time and trying to get the poor in better conditions. With 70 percent of the land in Guatemala owned by only 2 percent of the population there was little room for middle and lower class to be landowners. Guzman took 234,000 acres of land from the United Fruit Company based in America and the company claimed the money given for the land was not enough. In reaction top this incident the Americans began saying Guatemala's president was a communist and that the U.S needed to take power. Eisenhower and a lawyer that had dealt with the United Fruit Company was also involved in the communist concern in Guatemala.They thought that if the soviets took over Guatemala that the Monroe Doctrine and the U.S predominance in south America would be no longer existent. In 1953 Eisenhower ordered the CIA to overthrow the guatemalan governent and put in american allied leaders in power such as Carlos Enrique Castillo Armas. Guzman thought he was going to get overthrown by the U.S so he asked the soviets for help. THe U.S bombed the capital of guatemala and then Guzmans army left him and he fled the country.



=Panama =  General Manuel Noriega was leader of Panama. At first Noriega was a link between the U.S and Panama, he was being payed by the CIA. But eventually General Noriega became known for supporting illegal drug trade, rigging elections, violating civil rights and overall being an extremely corrupt leader. While this was going on the U.S pretended not to see because Panama was such a vital nation to the U.S because of the Panama canal, resources, and because Panama was vital in America's fight against communism.Eventually communism died down and the U.S felt they now had a different problem with Panama, the new problem was drugs. In 1989 president Bush said that the biggest problem facing America was the smuggling of drugs into the U.S. At this time the U.S stopped tip toeing around Panama and started to crack down on the booming drug industry surrounding South America. Noriega eventually had to pay for his corrupt ways: "Among the laundry-list of complaints filled, the Grand Juries charged Noriega with twelve counts of racketeering, drag trafficking, money laundering, and three counts of assisting American-based operatives to smuggle 1.4 million pounds of marijuana into the United States in return for a payment of more than $1 million. Moreover Noriega was charged with assisting the Colombian Medellin cartel in transporting more than two tons of cocaine to the United States via Panama in return for a payment of about $4.5 million, allowing the cartel to build a cocaine processing plant in Panama and of providing shelter for drug traffickers" (The Cold War Museum). After ega was indicted there was a new election in Panama, the U.S monitored the elections to try to prevent Noriega from being back in power. The outcome of the election was that Carlos Duque won. Carlos was Noriega's hand picked candidate,and because of this the government still continued to be corrupt. Panama declared a state of war on the U.S on December 15th, 1989. In response to this the U.S decided to fully invade Panama, and they were successful. Noriega was put on trial and now Panama is a democracy and a close allie to America. media type="youtube" key="GlaewpvuEAY" height="365" width="495" align="center"

=Nicaragua =  In Nicaragua the dictatorship lead by Anastasio Somoza was overthrown by the Sandinista Front for National Liberation or FSLN. After the government was overthrown Nicaragua looked like it was going to become another Cuba. To prevent this from happening America took action by giving them financial aid. Considering that communism thrives in impoverished nations the U.S thought it would be a good idea to pump money into the country. Overall the U.S put more than 337 million dollars into the Nicaragua. Although millions of dollars in aid was poured into the country Nicaragua was still headin to the communist side. In 1980 the FSLN government postponed free elections until 1985. They also made a trade agreement with Moscow. After the Nicaraguan government started assisting El Salvador in a revolt against the government the U.S started rethinking their decisions to give aid. When Ronald Regan came into office he stopped aid and also was obsessed with overthrowing the government.



=Cuba =  Some of the countries of Latin America were saved from the opression of communism by the United States but the Island of Cuba was not so cooperitive. America knew they had to take action against the dictatorship of Fidel Castro in Cuba. On april 15, 1961 three U.S planes flew over Cuba to try and bomb their bases so their air power would be damaged. On April 17, 1961 there was an invasion of Cuba planned by 1300 Cuban exiles at the Bay of Pigs. The exiles were beat by the Cuban forces misserably. Most of the exiles were taken into Cuban custody. America negotiated with Cuba and ended up giving them fifty three million dollars worth of food and medicine for the exiles to be free. The U.S and Cuba were very tense after the Bay of Pigs incedent. Cuba said that they would let the Soviert Union house missles on their island. The U.S heard of this and then organized a group of twelve advisors to take care of the situation in Cuba. Kennedy announced that any missles launched from Cuba would be regarded as an attack on America from the Soviet Union and wanted the destructive wepons to be removed from the island. On October 27th a U2 plane was shot down while it was flying over cuba, in respone to this the Soviets demanded that the missles be taken out of turkey and if that happened then the Soviets would take the missles out of Cuba.On October 28th the Soviets finally backed down and the U.S and Soviets made an agreement to take away missles and not invade.

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=<span style="color: #d80eae; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Citations =

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Koeller, David. "Bay of Pigs: 1961." N.p., 2003. Web. 2 May 2011. <http://www.thenagain.info/webchron/world/BayPigs.html>.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> cmc-webmaster@stolaf.edu,. "An Overview of the Crisis." Thinkquest team 11046, 1997. Web. 2 May 2011. [].

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Powaski, Ronlad. //The Cold War//. New York: Oxford Universuty Press, 1998. 105-106. Print.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Hanes, Sharon. //Cold War: Biography//. 1 A-J. Farmington Hills,MI: The Gale Group, 2004. 59-60. Print.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Gordon, D. (2011, april 29). //Manuel noriega and panama//. Retrieved from http://www.coldwar.org/articles/80s/ManuelNoriegaandPanama.asp