Becoming a Good Neighbor among Dictators

The U.S. Foreign Service in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras

Jorrit van den Berk (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

XIII, 336 Seiten

2018 | 1st ed. 2018
Springer International Publishing (Verlag)
978-3-319-69985-1 (ISBN)

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Very few works of history, if any, delve into the daily interactions of U.S. Foreign Service members in Latin America during the era of Roosevelt's Good Neighbor Policy. But as Jorrit van den Berk argues, the encounters between these rank-and-file diplomats and local officials reveal the complexities, procedures, intrigues, and shifting alliances that characterized the precarious balance of U.S. foreign relations with right-wing dictatorial regimes. Using accounts from twenty-two ministers and ambassadors, Becoming a Good Neighbor among Dictators is a careful, sophisticated account of how the U.S. Foreign Service implemented ever-changing State Department directives from the 1930s through the Second World War and early Cold War, and in so doing, transformed the U.S.-Central American relationship. How did Foreign Service officers translate broad policy guidelines into local realities? Could the U.S. fight dictatorships in Europe while simultaneously collaborating with dictators in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras? What role did diplomats play in the standoff between democratic and authoritarian forces? In investigating these questions, Van den Berk draws new conclusions about the political culture of the Foreign Service, its position between Washington policymakers and local actors, and the consequences of foreign intervention.

Jorrit van den Berk is Assistant Professor of North American Studies at Radboud University, The Netherlands.

1. Coping with the Caudillos.- 2. The Envoys: The Foreign Service in Central America, 1930-1952.- 3. Origins: The rise of the caudillos and the defeat of non-recognition, 1930-1934.- 4. Continuismo: The Good Neighbor and non-interference, 1934-1936.- 5. Becoming Benign Dictators: The Good Neighbor and fascism, 1936-39.- 6. The Best of Neighbors: The alliance against fascism, 1939-1944.- 7. The Casualties of War: The Central American upheavals of 1944.- 8. The Post-War Moment: An opening for democracy, 1944-1947.- 9. The Middle of the Road: The Cold War comes to Central America, 1947-1954.- 10. Becoming a Good Neighbor among Dictators.

Erscheinungsdatum	03.02.2018
Zusatzinfo	XIII, 336 p. 3 illus., 1 illus. in color.
Verlagsort	Cham
Sprache	englisch
Maße	148 x 210 mm
Gewicht	721 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
Schlagworte	Central American history • Central American politics • diplomacy studies • Franklin Roosevelt foreign policy • the good neighbor policy • United States- Central American relations • U.S. Diplomacy in World War II • U.S. Foreign Policy • US Foreign Relations • U.S. Foreign Service • U.S. intervention in Latin America
ISBN-10	3-319-69985-7 / 3319699857
ISBN-13	978-3-319-69985-1 / 9783319699851
Zustand	Neuware