Cold War in Latin America

							Cold War in Latin
    America
   Central America, the Caribbean and South
    America become the battleground for a test of
    wills between the United States and the
    U.S.S.R. -- as the Cold War comes to America's
    "backyard."
 After World War II, growing
  nationalism in Central and
  South America led to greater
  resentment against the
  United States, whose
  government and business
  interests dominated the
  region.
 At that time in Guatemala,
  the railroad, the main port,
  telecommunications and
  about 500,000 acres of land
  were owned by the United
  Fruit Company of Boston.
 In 1950, Jacobo Arbenz was
  voted Guatemala's president.
  Arbenz wanted to modernize
  Guatemala's backward
  society and started a land
  reform program, nationalizing
  thousands of acres of land --
  some of it owned by United
  Fruit.
 Officials in Washington were
  alarmed and suspected
  communist infiltration of the
  Arbenz government. Arbenz
  wasn't a communist, but
  some of his allies were.
   The CIA organized an
    operation code-named "PB
    Success," which mobilized
    disaffected Guatemalan exiles
    and peasants into action. The
    PB Success campaign brought
    down Guatemala's government
    and drove Arbenz and his wife
    into exile. Some 9,000 of his
    supporters were arrested.
    Among those who fled
    Guatemala was a young
    Argentine doctor, Che Guevara
    -- who went to Mexico, where
    he met Cuban rebel leader
    Fidel Castro.
                         CUBA
   By the end of the
    1950s, Fidel
    Castro and Che
    Guevara had
    triumphed in
    Cuba --
    establishing a
    communist
    regime that soon
    allied itself with
    the Soviet Union.
                   Bay of Pigs
   In 1961, the new U.S.
    president, John F.
    Kennedy, inherited a CIA
    scheme to send an army of
    exiles to Cuba to overthrow
    Castro -- a plan that had
    worked earlier against
    Arbenz in Guatemala. But
    the CIA-sponsored Bay of
    Pigs invasion against
    Castro was a disaster.
 About 100 Cubans were
  killed in the fighting.
  The disastrous operation
  was a great humiliation
  for the Kennedy
  administration and
  significantly increased
  Cold War tensions.
 Castro did not return
  the surviving Cuban
  exiles until the United
  States sent millions of
  dollars in humanitarian
  aid to Cuba.
   By the early 1960s, left-wing
    groups were fighting the
    authorities in Guatemala,
    Venezuela, Colombia and Peru.
   The United States grew nervous;
    in 1965, U.S. Marines were sent
    to the Dominican Republic to end
    a democratic revolution that
    Washington erroneously believed
    was backed by the Cubans.
   Cuba's real efforts to export
    revolution, meanwhile, met with
    mixed results.
    In 1967, Che Guevara, who had
    called for "100 Vietnams," was
    captured alive in Bolivia and shot
    dead hours later.
CHILE
      Chile had been calm in the
       1960s. But in 1970 a left-
       center coalition sought
       electoral victory.
       Unidad Popular was led by
       a Marxist doctor, Sen.
       Salvador Allende.
      U.S. businesses and the CIA
       tried -- and failed -- to
       prevent Allende from being
       elected president of Chile.
 Allende's first big step was the
  nationalization of copper, Chile's
  biggest industry, which was still
  effectively under U.S. control.
 He pressed on with what he
  called his "Social Revolution."
  Chilean peasants began to seize
  land.
 The Chilean economy was
  increasingly put under state
  control -- a move that upset
  overseas financiers. The World
  Bank in Washington cut off
  credits to Chile.
   Inflation and economic
    problems mounted. CIA
    money helped pay for
    Chilean truck owners to
    bring the country to a
    standstill.
   On September 11, 1973,
    Allende was violently ousted
    by the head of his military,
    Gen. Augusto Pinochet.
    Allende was found dead
    after the Moneda, the
    presidential palace, had
    been set ablaze.
   Following the coup, Pinochet
    had hundreds of political
    suspects rounded up. Many
    were never seen again.
Anybody noticing a
     trend?
                CENTRAL AMERICA
   In the 1930s in Nicaragua, U.S. Marines
    had helped put dictator Tacho Somoza
    into power.
   Forty years later, Nicaragua was still
    ruled by a Somoza. After years of
    fighting, guerrillas who called
    themselves Sandinistas, after the name
    of a 1930s anti-U.S. rebel, ousted
    Somoza in 1979.
   The Sandinistas allied themselves with
    Cuba and attempted to bring a Marxist
    order to their country. But they found
    themselves being challenged by a
    counter-rebellion -- the Contras.
   At the same time, in neighboring El
    Salvador, protests had broken out against
    right-wing military rule.
   Catholic Archbishop Oscar Romero was
    among those who spoke out. In March
    1980, as he was saying Mass in a private
    chapel, the archbishop was assassinated.
    At Romero's funeral, mourners were fired
    upon -- and many died.
   Later in the year three U.S. nuns and a
    female lay worker were kidnapped, raped
    and killed by men later discovered to be
    part of El Salvador's National Guard.
   The U.S. briefly, and temporarily,
    withdrew aid to the Salvadoran military.
    Meanwhile, Salvadoran guerrillas
    expanded their campaign against the
    government.
                          Grenada
   As the fighting continued in Central
    America, Washington was planning another
    operation -- on the British-governed
    Caribbean island of Grenada.
   When Grenada's left-wing prime minister,
    Maurice Bishop, was assassinated by
    extreme Marxists in 1983, the U.S. military
    had an invasion plan ready for Reagan's
    approval.
   The invasion, weakly opposed by a group of
    Cuban advisers on Grenada, was over in a
    few days. Within six weeks, their work done
    and Reagan's image enhanced, the U.S.
    troops left.
 The Reagan
  administration also was
  funding Nicaragua's
  Contra rebels.
 That undeclared war
  upset the U.S. Congress,
  which curtailed the
  Contras' funds.
 To pay for the Contras,
  White House officials
  secretly sold arms to
  Iran, a scandal that,
  once discovered, came
  back to hinder Reagan's
  government.
 By 1990, Nicaragua agreed to open
  and free elections, and Sandinista
  leader Daniel Ortega asked the
  Nicaraguan people to elect him
  president.
 His opponent was Violeta Chamorro,
  the widow of Pedro Joaquin
  Chamorro, an opposition leader killed
  during the Somoza regime.
 When the votes were tallied,
  Chamorro won a narrow, yet
  stunning victory.
 The superpower struggle in Central
  America had given way to a quiet
  revolution at the ballot box.
                 Did You Know?

   The United States suspected
    Russia's interests in the
    Western Hemisphere long
    before the Cold War. In fact,
    fears about Russian territorial
    ambitions in the Americas
    were a primary motivation
    for the Monroe Doctrine.
                Brinkmanship Game
   You are President Reagan's national security adviser. The president,
    fearing that a communist Nicaragua threatens all of Central America, has
    asked you to find a way to continue helping the "Contras," a Nicaraguan
    rebel group fighting the Cuban-supported Sandinista government.

   Congress has limited your legal options, however, by passing the Boland
    Amendment, which explicitly prohibits any further direct or indirect military
    aid to the Contras.

   A staffer suggests the Contras could benefit from another White House
    endeavor: the sale of missiles to Iran in exchange for the release of U.S.
    hostages in the Middle East. The staffer suggests diverting some of the
    arms sale proceeds to the Contras. This would accomplish two of Reagan's
    objectives -- freeing hostages and funding the Contras -- but it would
    directly violate the Boland Amendment.

   Do you approve the plan or reject it?
            Policy adviser No. 1:

   This proposal is a brilliant solution to two
    problems. And it will never be uncovered
    -- nobody would believe it. Approve the
    plan.
            Policy adviser No. 2:

   This scheme is a clear violation of the
    Boland Amendment, and it rewards
    terrorists for taking hostages. Reject it.
           Intelligence chief:

   We have an obligation to support the
    Contras. If we don't, Nicaragua could
    become a base for communist expansion
    throughout the hemisphere. Approve the
    plan.
                  Did you
 A) Reject it?
 B Approve it?
                                             YES
   Reagan's national security adviser, John Poindexter, made the same decision. He
    approved the plan. The result was the Iran-Contra scandal.
   The scheme had been conceived and directed by Lt. Col. Oliver North, an assistant deputy
    director on the National Security Council who already had been guiding extra-legal efforts to fund
    the Contras under the direction and approval of CIA Director William Casey.
   The first part of the Iran-Contra plan -- selling arms to Iran in exchange for hostages -- had been
    approved by Poindexter's predecessor, Robert McFarlane, in early 1985. This exchange directly
    contradicted the administration's public policy of refusing to bargain with terrorists. Then, with
    Poindexter's approval, North arranged to divert a portion of the proceeds from the arms sales to
    the Contras. This was in direction violation of the law -- the Boland Amendment.
   The story became public after a Lebanese newspaper uncovered the arms sales. Reagan ordered
    an investigation, revealing the diversion of funds to the Contras. Though he had ordered his staff
    to find a way to fund the Contras, Reagan denied any knowledge of North's scheme. The
    damage, however, was done: Congressional hearings and a special counsel investigation ensued.
    Poindexter and North lost their jobs and were prosecuted, while Reagan's approval rating
    plummeted. The scandal weakened Reagan's ability to pursue his objectives in Central America or
    anywhere else.
   The Contras, meanwhile, failed to gain ground in Nicaragua. A diplomatic initiative, led by Costa
    Rican President Oscar Arias, was more successful. After years of negotiations, the Sandinistas
    agreed to hold free elections. In 1990 Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega was defeated by
    opposition leader Violetta Chamorro. The Sandinistas handed over the government, and the
    Contras were disarmed.

                                              NO
   This was not the decision of Reagan's national security adviser, John Poindexter. He
    approved the plan. The result was the Iran-Contra scandal.
   The scheme had been conceived and directed by Lt. Col. Oliver North, an assistant deputy
    director on the National Security Council who already had been guiding extra-legal efforts to fund
    the Contras under the direction and approval of CIA Director William Casey.
   The first part of the Iran-Contra plan -- selling arms to Iran in exchange for hostages -- had been
    approved by Poindexter's predecessor, Robert McFarlane, in early 1985. This exchange directly
    contradicted the administration's public policy of refusing to bargain with terrorists. Then, with
    Poindexter's approval, North arranged to divert a portion of the proceeds from the arms sales to
    the Contras. This was in direction violation of the law -- the Boland Amendment.
   The story became public after a Lebanese newspaper uncovered the arms sales. Reagan ordered
    an investigation, revealing the diversion of funds to the Contras. Though he had ordered his staff
    to find a way to fund the Contras, Reagan denied any knowledge of North's scheme. The
    damage, however, was done: Congressional hearings and a special counsel investigation ensued.
    Poindexter and North lost their jobs and were prosecuted, while Reagan's approval rating
    plummeted. The scandal weakened Reagan's ability to pursue his objectives in Central America or
    anywhere else.
   The Contras, meanwhile, failed to gain ground in Nicaragua. A diplomatic initiative, led by Costa
    Rican President Oscar Arias, was more successful. After years of negotiations, the Sandinistas
    agreed to hold free elections. In 1990 Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega was defeated by
    opposition leader Violeta Chamorro. The Sandinistas handed over the government, and the
    Contras were disarmed.