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. While its rule became effective during Franklin Roosevelt's presidency, Hoover paved the way for it and coined the term "Good Neighbor". 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; however, many Latin American governments were not convinced.[2]
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Background [edit]
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the United States periodically intervened militarily in Latin American nations to protect its interests, particularly the commercial interests of the American business community. Whenever the United States 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.
FDR administration [edit]
Policy [edit]
On March 4, 1933 Roosevelt announced 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."[3] 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".[4] 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."[5]
Impact [edit]
The Good Neighbor Policy terminated the US Marines occupation of Nicaragua in 1933 and occupation of Haiti in 1934, led to the annulment of the Platt Amendment by the Treaty of Relations with Cuba in 1934, and the negotiation of compensation for Mexico's nationalization of foreign-owned oil assets in 1938. The United States Maritime Commission contracted Moore-McCormack Lines to operate a "Good Neighbor fleet"[6] of 10 cargo ships and three recently laid-up ocean liners between the US and South America.[7] The passenger liners were the recently-defunct Panama Pacific Line's SS California, Virginia and Pennsylvania.[8] Moore-McCormack had them refurbished and renamed them SS Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina for their new route between New York and Buenos Aires via Rio de Janeiro, Santos and Montevideo.[7][9] The policy's cultural impact included the launch of CBS's Viva América radio program and Walt Disney's films Saludos Amigos (1942) and The Three Caballeros (1944).
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.[10]
Legacy [edit]
The era of the Good Neighbor Policy ended with the threat of the Cold War in 1945, as the USA felt there was a greater need to protect the western hemisphere from the Soviet threat. These changes conflicted with the Good Neighbor Policy's fundamental principle of non-intervention and led to a new wave of US interference into Latin American affairs.[2] Until the end of the Cold War the US directly or indirectly attacked all suspected socialist movements in the hope of ending the spread of Soviet influence. US interventions in this era included the CIA overthrow of Guatemala's President Jacobo Árbenz in 1954, the unsuccessful CIA-backed Bay of Pigs Invasion in Cuba in 1961, CIA subversion of Chile's President Salvador Allende in 1970–73, and CIA subversion of Nicaragua's Sandinista government from about 1981 to 1990.[2]
After World War II the US began to shift its focus to aid and rebuilding efforts in Europe and Japan. These US efforts largely neglected the Latin American countries, though US investors and business men did have some stake in the nations to the South.
See also [edit]
- Anti-Americanism
- Cold War
- Colossus of the North
- Interventionism (politics)
- Latin America–United States relations
- Monroe Doctrine
- United States occupation of Haiti
References [edit]
- ^ Rabe, Stephen G (2006). "The Johnson Doctrine". Presidential Studies Quarterly 36 (1): 45–58. ISSN 1741-5705.
- ^ a b c Gilderhus, Mark T (2006). "The Monroe Doctrine: Meanings and Implications". Presidential Studies Quarterly 36 (1): 5–16. ISSN 1741-5705.
- ^ Roosevelt, Franklin Delano (4 Mar 1933). First Inaugural Address. Washington DC.
- ^ LaFeber, Walter (1994). The American Age: U.S. Foreign Policy at Home and Abroad, 1750 to Present (2nd ed.). New York: W. W. Norton & Company. p. 376. ISBN 0393964744.
- ^ Nixon, Edgar B (ed.). Franklin D. Roosevelt and Foreign Affairs I. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press. pp. 559–560. LCCN 68-25617.
- ^ Lee, Robert C. (16 October 1956). "Mr Moore, Mr McCormack, and the Seven Seas". 15th Newcomen Society Lecture. United States Coast Guard Academy. Retrieved 24 December 2009.
- ^ a b Grace, Michael L (19 October 2012). "History – Moore-McCormack Lines". Cruising the Past. Retrieved 21 May 2013.
- ^ "Panama Pacific Lines finished". Time (Michael L Grace). 9 May 1938. Retrieved 19 May 2013.
- ^ Vinson, Bill; Casey, Ginger Quering. "S.S. Uruguay". Welcome Aboard Moore-McCormack Lines. Retrieved 21 May 2013.
- ^ Grandin, Greg (2006). Empires Workshop: Latin America, the United States and the Rise of the New Imperialism. Metropolitan Books. p. not cited. ISBN 0805077383.
External links [edit]
- "The Good Neighbor policy". United States History. Online Highways, LLC. 1995–2005.
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