Throughout the past hundred years the U.S. has participated or organized many regime changes. In Stephen Kinzer’s “Overthrow” he shows how the U.S. participated in various regime changes throughout the world, whether it was orchestrated by the U.S. or if they were helping an ally. The U.S. participated in various “overthrows” over the last hundred years because during these eras many American business were threatened, there was concern for other countries falling into communism and the U.S. wanted to spread its cultural influence to other countries. During the Imperialist Era the United States went into Hawaii in order to annex Hawaii and profit more from the money coming in from the sugar plantations.…
Many reason exist as to why the Chilean military decided to overthrow a democratic government. Some attribute it to the United States involvement in covert operations along with national interests all over the world especially in the Western Hemisphere. Potentially this was another Vietnam for the United States who willfully fought against any communist, or socialist regimes in many parts of the world. With the declassification of thousands of documents one can see the stance and covert operations especially in Chile during this time period. While no secret to anyone in denying…
As the new President of Cuba, Castro had two things on his mind: communism and attacking the United States. Castro was a big communist supporter and was able to befriend the Soviet Union and receive machines and arms to support his growing armies. In return, the United States saw this as an immense threat to the nation and at the time, President Kennedy was taking control of our nation. Kennedy was able to cut off all trade with Cuba and initiate along with the CIA the Bay of Pigs Invasion to overthrow Fidel Castro from Cuba. The Bay of Pigs Invasion was not successful and President Kennedy brought an embarrassment upon himself as along with the CIA.…
The investigation analyzes the situation in Cuba and the United States in 1960 and 1961. Insight into the internal conflict between the Kennedy’s administration, the CIA’s disputable decisions, and President John F. Kennedy’s inexperience as president, will shed light onto the question: To what extent did the shortcomings and limitations of John F. Kennedy’s administration reflect onto The Bay of Pigs incident in 1961? The primary source that will be evaluated is a publication of the secret CIA report on the invasion of Cuba.…
During the Cold War, the US and its neoliberal capitalist agenda were out to eliminate any trace of socialism and communism, no matter the cost or consequences. In 1973, Chile was under the rule of Salvador Allende, a democratically elected socialist leader. In the hysteria of possible socialist/communist spread to the US, the American government executed a coup d’état leading to the death of Allende. To force Allende out of office, the CIA worked to destabilize Chile’s economy in order to force a neoliberal leader that supported the US economic policy and benefits. This gave the US the opportunity to appoint brutal dictator Augusto Pinochet who would rule Chile for seventeen years.…
The Salvadoran Civil War (1980-1992) witnessed horrendous human rights violations that dismantled the physical and social fabric of Salvadoran society, leaving more than 75,000 dead and more than a one million as refugees. Fought between the authoritarian Salvadoran government and the guerilla Farabundo Marti Liberation Front (FMLN), the twelve year bloody civil war came to an end with both parties signing the Chapultepec Peace Accords in 1992, with the assistance of international actors, most notably the United Nations. The Chapultepec Peace Accords represented unimaginable strides in Central American post-cold war conflict negotiations while simultaneously failing to address the root(s) of the civil wars and promote an inclusive post-war society.…
The United States made a wise choice to be involved with Chile. “The election of Allende was viewed in Washington as a significant setback to United States interest worldwide” (U.S. Library of Congress). When Allende was running for election, it sparked United States interest because we wanted to prevent him from coming to power we wanted to protect our economy and our image as a country. In the 1970’s Allende was in the running for election and in that time we had United States companies that were established in Chile and we saw it as a threat to our economy and our image. The United States embarked on a covert campaign to prevent Allende from gaining office.…
They used propaganda in order to glorify their company United Fruit and shame the current leader of the country. However Kinzer states that "Guatemala 's communist party was a modest affair. Even at peak it had only a few hundred active members" (135) which goes to show that the US government had ulterior motives when it came to overthrowing the government of Guatemala. Kinzer uses arguments like this war because it shows that the US couldn’t come out saying their true plans for Guatemala because our society would not have supported it as…
The United States Central Intelligence Agency carried out the 1954 Guatemalan coup d’etat which was a covert operation. They were striving to depose the Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz, and ended the Guatemalan revolution. Dictator Jorge Ubico was backed into a corner because of a revolution against the U.S. Juan Jose Arevalo, who won the elections, made social reforms including a minimum wage, increased educational funding and near universal suffrage. This dictator wanted to turn Guatemala into a liberal capitalist society. Jacobo Arbenz was elected president in 1950, and continued these rules.…
The Bay of Pigs invasion was a waste of America’s time and the invasion should not have been thought about in the first place. It was just lost of $13 million and lives that shouldn’t have been in the invasion. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) just gave the Frente Revolucionario Democratico (FRD) guns and told them run back into Cuba and give it the best you got. Also, shows that we get ahead of ourselves and that we get worked up over the littlest things. When we do we do not think about, have the time to prepare, and going into it then thinking on what to do and by that time it was too late to start planning.…
El Salvador has been a country ruled by their own military since 1932, when the Central American Socialist Party was created. The peasants replied with riots and protests. The revolt did not last long due to the Salvadoran military killing 30,000 civilians. They…
Communists also ruled their economies different then the capitalist free market United States, prompting the U.S. to intervene with Guatemala’s leadership to assist their largest corporation in the region. The major economic factor in Guatemala was the American Corporation U.F.C. (United Fruit Company). The shady U.F.C., founded in 1899, was the most powerful fruit company in the Western Hemisphere, buying out many smaller competitors. With that power came political influence. They possessed many top politicians in the 50’s, allowing their illegitimate dealings and growth to take place.…
Source 1: Noam Chomsky: The Culture of Terrorism The Cultural-Historical Context of Iran-Contra The Reagan Doctrine had already been to blame for other coups and clandestine terrorist activities. “In Central America, the Reagan Doctrine deserves a large share of the credit for a most impressive slaughter. The death toll under Reagan in El Salvador passed 50,000 and in Guatemala it may approach 100,000.”…
Native women of the Americas belonged to a culture that respected them. Their culture gave them autonomy, power and equality. Native societies were not founded on a hierarchical system. There was no such thing as major divisions between men and woman. During pre-Colombian times, men and women had different roles and their work often differed, but they did not place more value in one role over the other.…
Wilson believed that democracy was becoming the norm throughout the world, but quickly found that this was not the case. South of America in Mexico, a military coup took place, in which the democratic government was overthrown by a military dictator. Wilson refused to acknowledge such a leader as it went against his views with democracy. This stance and view encouraged the Mexican people to revolt against the new regime and Wilson allowed to use force when the regime took American sailors prisoner. Both moves worked in tandem to promote a new leadership within Mexico, one which Wilson immediately acknowledge as the rightful president.…