Book Review: A Short History of U.S. Interventions in Latin America and the Caribbean

A concise history of United States interventions by Alan McPherson.

In A Short History of U.S. Interventions in Latin America and the Caribbean, Alan McPherson provides a potted account of US involvement and interference in Latin America through a number of cases from 1811 (continental expansion) to 2016 (drug wars). In each case he examines the ‘Five Cs’: causes, consequences, contestation, collaboration and context and provides troop and casualty figures as well as revealing quotes from those involved.

McPherson’s primary focus is on the ‘Banana Wars’ during the first third of the 20th century, with only three of the nine chapters covering the Cold War and later. The book further focuses on military interventions; while, for McPherson, military training and ‘diplomatic arm-twisting’ qualify as US pressure, they ‘nevertheless do not rise to the definition of an intervention.’

This is the principal reason why McPherson’s history, while balanced, falls short. For instance, while noting that during the Cold War, the majority of Latin American governments, with US arms and training ‘became the worst abusers of human rights’, he fails to mention that the ‘fiercely anti-Communist’, ‘often fascist’ ideology of the highly-repressive national security doctrine which characterised the regimes was imparted via, and a crucial component of, the counterinsurgency doctrine which ran through US military training.

Similarly, turning to the 21st century, whilst US intervention in Haiti in 2004 is recounted, US funding of opposition groups and diplomatic support for coups in Venezuela (2002), Honduras (2009) and Paraguay (2012) falls outside the scope of the study and receives no mention. This is perhaps understandable considering the remit, but remains disappointing. Returning briefly to the Cold War, it is remarkable that extensive US involvement in El Salvador’s civil war is reduced to simply ‘a U.S.-supported right-wing regime.’

Whilst this short history leaves more to be desired, particularly with regards to contemporary relations, its focus on the Banana Wars is welcome. McPherson’s book is a useful and informative introduction to US-Latin America relations.

A Short History of U.S. Interventions in Latin America and the Caribbean

Alan McPherson (Wiley Blackwell, 2016)

This article was originally published in Alborada magazine issue three (Winter 2016/17)