Copyright by Aragorn Storm Miller 2012
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Copyright by Aragorn Storm Miller 2012 The Dissertation Committee for Aragorn Storm Miller Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Precarious Paths to Freedom: The United States, the Caribbean Basin, & the New Politics of the Latin American Cold War, 1958-1968 Committee: Mark A. Lawrence, Supervisor Jonathan C. Brown Henry A. Dietz H. William Brands Michael B. Stoff Precarious Paths to Freedom: The United States, the Caribbean Basin, & the New Politics of the Latin American Cold War, 1958-1968 by Aragorn Storm Miller, B.A., M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2012 Dedication To Carla for compassion, to Bobby for perspective, and to both of you for the adventures… Acknowledgements I wish to thank Mark Lawrence for being a patient mentor and friend for the last seven years. You have given more than I could ever hope to repay. I also owe a considerable debt to Henry Dietz, who helped me start the graduate school journey and saw me through to the end. Many thanks as well to Jonathan Brown for his piercing insight at many crucial points in the research and writing of this dissertation. I must express my profound gratitude to Marilyn Lehman, without whom this dissertation would have been impossible. I extend thanks to University of Texas Department of History, and to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, for generous funding along the way. I would also like to thank the many archivists and librarians who helped me at the Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson presidential libraries, the national archives of the United States and the Dominican Republic, and the universities of Texas, Florida, and North Carolina. In particular, I must thank Quisqueya Lara at the Archivo General Nacional in Santo Domingo for her personal intervention on my behalf. This process has been an odyssey, but the people listed above have made the journey manageable. v Precarious Paths to Freedom: The United States, the Caribbean Basin, & the New Politics of the Latin American Cold War, 1958-1968 Aragorn Storm Miller, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2012 Supervisor: Mark A. Lawrence At first glance U.S. policy towards Latin America between 1958 and 1968 appears to have been a failure. Initiatives intended to promote democracy and economic development, and to insulate the hemisphere from the ideological and military struggles of the global Cold War, reaped only authoritarian regimes, uneven and sluggish economic growth, and political debates over the global systems of capitalism and communism that distracted attention from the unique and pressing problems of Latin America. A closer examination of the U.S.-Latin American relationship, however, reveals that the policies pursued by Washington succeeded in an unlikely arena, in the nation that seemed to matter most to U.S. policymakers. That nation was Venezuela, which emerged from generations of tyranny in 1958 only to become the focal point first for a right wing counterrevolutionary insurgency sponsored by the Dominican Republic, and then for a leftist guerrilla war that involved the competing ideologies of Cuba, the Soviet Union, and China. From 1958 onward U.S. policymakers identified Venezuela as a crucial bulwark against right-wing and left-wing extremism and as an ideal partner in the creation of a modernized, prosperous, and pro-U.S. Latin America. Venezuelan moderates, meanwhile, dexterously manipulated U.S. support to realize these goals and to eliminate the existential threats posed by domestic and foreign extremists. The study of vi the Washington-Caracas partnership from 1958 to 1968 illuminates the ways in which U.S. and Latin American policymakers could, under certain circumstances, solve the most vexing political, ideological, and military problems besetting the hemisphere through an innovative blend of democratic, diplomatic, and coercive means. vii Table of Contents List of Illustrations................................................................................................. xi Introduction..............................................................................................................1 Chapter 1: New Looks & New Nationalisms, 1956-1959 ....................................20 Confronting Economic Underdevelopment: The State Department and the White House in 1958 and Beyond .......................................................23 Rafael Trujillo as Case Study for the Obstacles to U.S. Reform Efforts......32 The Rise of the Latin American Reformers: Rómulo Betancourt and Developmental Nationalism.................................................................40 Despotism or Democracy? The Eisenhower Administration and Betancourt Confront the Future of Hemispheric Politics.......................................49 The Collapse of the Pérez Jiménez Regime: Setting the Stage for a Political Reckoning ............................................................................................60 Conclusion ....................................................................................................74 Chapter 2: The Contest for a New Political Order: The Last Stand of the Caribbean Right Wing & the Triumph of Nationalism, 1959-1961 ..............................77 Old Grudges, New Politics: Caribbean Crises and the Santiago Conference, Spring and Summer 1959.....................................................................78 The Perezjimenista-Trujillo Union I: Rhetoric and Invasion, 1959-1960 ...92 The Perezjimenista-Trujillo Union II: The Assassination Attempt Against Betancourt and its Aftermath, 1960-1961..........................................108 The Death Rattles of the Right Wing, September 1960-June 1961............120 Conclusion ..................................................................................................135 Chapter 3: Contesting Liberalism: Kennedy, Betancourt, & the Newest Left in Latin America, 1960-1963 ...................................................................................138 Into the Wilderness: The Leftists Depart the Punto Fijo Coalition ...........139 Kennedy and Betancourt, Expectations and Reality, 1961.........................148 From the Pen to the Sword: The MIR-PCV Union and Its Embrace of Violence ............................................................................................................160 The Communist World and the First Stages of Insurgency........................174 Test of Wills: The 1963 Presidential Election in Venezuela .....................192 viii Conclusion ..................................................................................................206 Chapter 4: Sharpening Swords & Ideas: Washington, Caracas, & the Deepening Insurgency...................................................................................................210 LBJ’s Inheritance: The Dilemma of Latin American Instability...............212 A Moment of Contingency: Venezuela and the Communist World, Spring 1964 ............................................................................................................222 Containment, the Paraguaná Issue, and the 9th OAS Meeting of Consultation of Foreign Ministers...............................................................................231 The Limits of the U.S. Commitment to Latin American Democracy: Brazil, April 1964 ..........................................................................................242 Victory and Defeat in Venezuela, August 1964-December 1965...............252 Continuing Violence and Ambivalence, January 1965-January 1966........262 Conclusion ..................................................................................................275 Chapter 5: A Coalescing Center & Splintering Radicalism, 1966-1967 ............280 Catalyzing a World Revolution? The Tri-Continental Conference and Revolutionary Adjustments in Venezuela, Winter 1965-1966..........283 The Distance Between Prescription and Practice: Life and Death in the Venezuelan Guerrilla Movement, 1966.............................................296 “Two, Three, Many Vietnams”: The Radical Communist Gambit in Latin America, 1967....................................................................................314 To Punta del Este and Beyond: Johnson and Leoni Confront Castro and the Hard-Liners, Spring 1967 ..................................................................329 Conclusion ..................................................................................................340 Chapter 6: “It Is Difficult to Take up Arms, but at Times More Difficult to Release Them”: The Twilight of the Guerrilla War, 1967-1968 ............................345 Efforts at Conciliation and Efforts at Escalation: From the Glassboro Summit to the LASO Conference........................................................................348 The Hunters and the Hunted I: The Crucible of Guerrilla War in Venezuela, 1967....................................................................................................359 The Hunters and the Hunted II: Killing Che Guevara and the Idea of “Many Vietnams” ..........................................................................................369 1968: The Year of the Heroic Guerrilla? ...................................................378 ix “We Fell into the Trap of Vanguardism”: The End of the Guerrilla