Good Neighbor policy
The Good Neighbor policy was the foreign policy of the administration of United States President Franklin Roosevelt toward the countries of Latin America. Its main principle was that of non-intervention and non-interference in the domestic affairs of Latin America. It also reinforced the idea that the United States would be a “good neighbor” and engage in reciprocal exchanges with Latin American countries[1]. Overall, the Roosevelt administration expected that this new policy would create new economic opportunities in the form of reciprocal trade agreements and reassert the influence of the United States in Latin America.[2]
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[edit] Background
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the United States periodically intervened militarily in Latin America nations to protect its interests, particularly the commercial interests of the American business community. Whenever a nation felt its debts were not being repaid in a prompt fashion, its citizens' business interests were being threatened, or its access to natural resources were being impeded, military intervention or threats were often used to coerce the respective government into compliance.
Such interventions became increasingly unpopular in the United States.[citation needed] Many felt it was too imperialistic for the United States to conduct foreign affairs solely on behalf of American commercial interests. These groups felt that American intervention in Latin America had bred a culture of resentment and anti-Americanism in the region, which was beginning to manifest itself in the form of ultra-nationalist and protectionist measures by those countries' governments.[citation needed] Others objected to the financial cost of military intervention.[who?]
Examples of U.S. intervention include the occupation of Haiti from 1915–1934 and the occupation of the Dominican Republic from 1916-1924.[3]
[edit] FDR administration
[edit] Policy
On March 3, 1933, Roosevelt stated during his inaugural address that: "In the field of world policy I would dedicate this nation to the policy of the good neighbor, the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others, the neighbor who respects his obligations and respects the sanctity of his agreements in and with a world of neighbors."[4] This position was affirmed by Cordell Hull, Roosevelt's Secretary of State at a conference of American states in Montevideo in December 1933. Hull said: "No country has the right to intervene in the internal or external affairs of another".[5] Roosevelt then confirmed the policy in December of the same year: "The definite policy of the United States from now on is one opposed to armed intervention."[6]
The United States wished to have good relations with its neighbors, especially at a time when conflicts were beginning to rise once again, and this policy was more or less intended to solidify Latin American support. The Good Neighbor Policy meant that the United States would keep its eye on Latin America in a more peaceful tone. Avoiding military intervention, the United States shifted to other methods to maintain its influence in Latin America: Pan-Americanism, support for strong local leaders, the training of national guards, economic and cultural penetration, Export-Import Bank loans, financial supervision, and political subversion.
[edit] Impact
The Good Neighbor Policy resulted in the withdrawal of U.S. Marines from Haiti and Nicaragua in 1934, the annulment of the Platt Amendment, and the negotiation of compensation for Mexico's nationalization of foreign assets in the oil industry in 1938. The policy's cultural impact included the initiation of the radio program Viva America and the 1942 Walt Disney film Saludos Amigos. By the end of World War II, Latin America was, according to one historian, the region of the world most supportive of American foreign policy.[7]
[edit] Legacy
The era of the Good Neighbor Policy ended with the threat of the Cold War in 1945. The Cold War forced a change in policy as Americans felt there was a greater need to protect the western hemisphere from the Soviet threat. Thus, these changes conflicted with the Good Neighbor Policy's fundamental principle of non-intervention and resulted in a new wave of American interference into Latin American affairs.[2] Until the end of the Cold War, the United States would directly or indirectly attack all suspected socialist movements in the hope of ending the spread of communist Soviet influence. American interventions during this period included the usurping of the socialist regime in Chile, the overthrow of socialist president Jacobo Arbenz [8] in Guatemala and the radical Sandinista government of Nicaragua.[2]
After World War II, the United States began to shift its focus to aid and rebuilding efforts in Europe and Japan. These American efforts largely neglected the Latin American countries, though American investors and business did have some stake in the nations to the South.
[edit] See also
- United States-Latin American relations
- Interventionism (politics)
- Anti-Americanism
- Monroe Doctrine
- U.S. occupation of Haiti
- Colossus of the North
[edit] References
- ^ Rabe, Stephen G. "The Johnson Doctrine." Presidential Studies Quarterly 36.1(2006):45-58.
- ^ a b c Gilderhus, Mark T. "The Monroe Doctrine: Meanings and Implications." Presidential Studies Quarterly 36.1(2006):5-16.
- ^ Bellegarde-Smith, Patrick. Haiti: The Breached Citadel (Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press, 2004), 111
- ^ Roosevelt, Franklin Delano. "First Inaugural Address." Washington DC. 04 Mar 1933.
- ^ LaFeber, Walter (1994). The American Age: U.S. Foreign Policy at Home and Abroad, 1750 to Present (2nd ed.). New York: Norton. p. 376.
- ^ Edgar B. Nixon, ed., Franklin D. Roosevelt and Foreign Affairs, vol. I, 559-60
- ^ Grandin, Greg. Empires Workshop: Latin America, the United States and the Rise of the New Imperialism 2006
- ^ http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobo_Arbenz_Guzm%C3%A1n
[edit] External links
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