The U.S. in Latin America

History 392E

THE U.S. IN LATIN AMERICA

Spring 2019

T/Th 1 – 2:15pm Bartlett Hall, room 206

Professor Kevin A. Young Office hours: T 2:30-4:30, Th 11:30-12:30 [email protected] Herter 624

The histories of the United States and Latin America have been closely intertwined. Why has the U.S. government intervened in the region, and with what consequences? How have Latin Americans responded? This course examines U.S. motives and actions in Latin America, which for our purposes includes the Caribbean as well. We will assess the role of the U.S. government and military but also that of corporations, international financial institutions, non-governmental organizations, and the U.S. public. While these foreign actors have wielded tremendous power in the region, they have always operated within contexts partially defined by Latin Americans – themselves an incredibly diverse population including presidents, dictators, militaries, landlords, clergy, industrialists, the middle class, wage workers, slaves, peasant farmers, women community leaders, LGBTQ activists, shantytown dwellers, migrants, and hundreds of ethnic groups. U.S. experiences with Latin America have often helped to shape both U.S. society and its interactions with the rest of the world, making this history of vital importance for understanding much of global history. The course places a special focus on close readings of primary source documents, including declassified government memos, speeches, newspaper reports, political cartoons, and the voices of some of the people who have opposed U.S. policies.

Course Goals and Key Questions

The study of history is not about memorizing facts or trivia; it involves learning from the past so that we can understand the present and help to shape the future. This undertaking is inescapably political in nature. Although certain basic facts about the past are beyond dispute, their meaning is always contested: that is, there is no single correct interpretation of why certain things happened, of whether those things were positive or negative, or of what life was like during a given era. Historians are not objective conveyors of history, but political actors whose “biases” – that is, our values, assumptions, material interests, and goals for the future – inevitably influence our perspectives. Likewise, the people whom we study all have their own values, assumptions, interests, and goals. Throughout the course we will examine how these factors have shaped life for diverse groups of people affected by U.S. policy in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The following questions will be central to most of the lectures, discussions, and assignments. This list is not exhaustive, however: I strongly encourage you to formulate your own questions and comments about the topics we cover, and to raise them during class.

1. Why has the U.S. government intervened in Latin America and the Caribbean? Which people or groups have shaped U.S. policy?

2. How has the U.S. government’s rhetoric compared to reality?

3. What consequences has U.S. intervention in Latin America had? What factors or forces have bolstered or limited U.S. power?

4. How can we define intervention? What different forms has it taken?

5. To what extent has U.S. policy changed over time? Have different presidents and different eras brought fundamental changes, or simply cosmetic ones?

6. How have Latin American actors responded to U.S. intervention? Why have various groups opposed or supported that intervention?

7. How have members of the U.S. public perceived Latin America and U.S. policy in the region? How can we explain their views?

8. How have U.S. newspapers, television, movies, and books portrayed Latin America? Why?

9. How has this history shaped the present?

10. What’s at stake in how we remember the history of U.S.-Latin American relations?

Course Requirements

Requirements include active class participation, six short quizzes, two essays of 4-5 pages each, and a final exam. Passing at least 5 of the 6 quizzes will excuse you from the final exam.

Participation (20% of total grade)

Participation includes attendance and active engagement in all class sessions. You are expected to read all of the assigned readings (including documents) prior to the start of class on the day for which they are assigned, and to come to class with comments and questions in mind. The lectures and class discussions will be partly, but not entirely, based on the readings – meaning that merely attending class is not a substitute for doing the readings, nor vice versa. If you must miss a class for valid reasons (health, religious holidays, family emergencies, etc.), please notify me by email, preferably in advance. More than one unexcused absence or multiple instances of tardiness will hurt your grade, with 3 percentage points deducted for each additional unexcused absence and 2 for every unexcused instance of lateness. If you do miss a class, I expect you to do the readings, obtain the notes from a classmate, and then see me if you have questions about what you missed.

6 Quizzes or Final Exam (40% of total grade; the first is worth 5%, the rest are 7% each)

The 6 quizzes will be unannounced, but you may use your reading notes. They will consist of short answers and identifications designed to gauge your comprehension of the course material. If you take and pass at least 5 of the 6, you are exempt from the final exam. If you miss class on the day of a quiz, you may only make up the quiz if you provide written documentation justifying your absence.

2 Essays (20% and 20% of total)

Each of the 4-5 page essays will require you to formulate an original argument and to support that argument with evidence from class readings and lectures. Due Friday, March 8 and Friday, April 26. Papers submitted late will lose points based on the following timeline:

1-12 hours late: 5 points 24-48 hours late: 15 points 12-24 hours late: 10 points 48+ hours late: 20 points

No late papers will be accepted after 11:59pm on Tuesday, May 7.

Other Rules

Academic honesty. Since the integrity of the academic enterprise of any institution of higher education requires honesty in scholarship and research, academic honesty is required of all students at UMass Amherst. Academic dishonesty is prohibited in all programs of the

University. Academic dishonesty includes but is not limited to: cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, and facilitating dishonesty. Appropriate sanctions may be imposed on any student who has committed an act of academic dishonesty. Instructors should take reasonable steps to address academic misconduct. Any person who has reason to believe that a student has committed academic dishonesty should bring such information to the attention of the appropriate course instructor as soon as possible. Instances of academic dishonesty not related to a specific course should be brought to the attention of the appropriate department Head or Chair. Since students are expected to be familiar with this policy and the commonly accepted standards of academic integrity, ignorance of such standards is not normally sufficient evidence of lack of intent. Please see here for more information: http://www.umass.edu/dean_students/academic_policy.

Accommodations. UMass is committed to providing an equal educational opportunity for all students. If you have a documented physical, psychological, or learning disability on file with Disability Services, you may be eligible for reasonable academic accommodations to help you succeed in this course. If you have a documented disability that requires an accommodation, please notify Disability Services (http://www.umass.edu/disability/) as soon as possible.

Electronics. Please do not use laptops, recorders, cell phones, or other electronic devices in the classroom. There is an abundance of academic research on the ways that these devices impede classroom learning. The only exception to this rule will be at designated times when we are doing in-depth discussion of the readings, during which I will allow you to use a computer or phone to access the .pdf files.

Names and Pronouns: Everyone has the right to be addressed and referred to by the name and pronouns that correspond to their gender identity, including the use of non-binary pronouns. Please try to avoid assuming another student’s pronouns based on their name, appearance, or behavior. I will make a habit of using neutral pronouns (“they/them/their”) in reference to everyone unless a student indicates a different preference, and I ask that students do the same when referring to their peers.

Course Readings

When doing a reading, focus on the main argument(s) and how the reading relates to the core themes and questions of the course. Think about the questions posed on page 2 of this syllabus and the others that I raise during class. Avoid focusing too much on the details. I am very happy to discuss reading strategies with you, particularly if you are new to UMass or to reading- intensive courses, so please come to my office hours or email me to set up an appointment if you find yourself struggling.

The following 3 books are available for purchase from Amherst Books and at various online booksellers. Hard copies are also available on 3-hour Reserve at Du Bois library.

1. Lars Schoultz, Beneath the United States: A History of U.S. Policy toward Latin America (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998)

2. Greg Grandin, Empire’s Workshop: Latin America, the United States, and the Rise of the New Imperialism (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2006) 3. Mark Danner, The Massacre at El Mozote: A Parable of the Cold War (New York: Vintage, 1994)

All other reading assignments and videos are available on the course Moodle page. I may make minor changes to the syllabus during the semester, in which case I will notify everyone as far in advance as possible.

Class Schedule

Jan. 22 Conquering a Continent, and Looking Beyond

Jan. 24 Manifest Destiny and the Monroe Doctrine

• Schoultz, Beneath the United States, xi-13 • Documents 1-2 [see list starting on p. 9 of syllabus]

Jan. 29 Invading Mexico

• Schoultz, Beneath the United States, 14-38 • Document 3

Jan. 31 Opening Doors for U.S. Capital

• Schoultz, Beneath the United States, 78-90, 107-124 • Documents 4-5

Feb. 5 A Splendid Little War?

• Schoultz, Beneath the United States, 125-51 • Documents 6-10

Feb. 7 Big Sticks and Gunboats

• Schoultz, Beneath the United States, 152-204 • Document 11

Feb. 12 Wilsonianism: Rhetoric and Realities

• Schoultz, Beneath the United States, 205-252 • Document 12

Feb. 14 Bananas and Business

• Schoultz, Beneath the United States, 253-271 • Documents 13-14

Feb. 19 No class (Monday schedule)

Feb. 21 Anti-Imperialist Resistance

• Grandin, Empire’s Workshop, 1-39 • Documents 15-16

Feb. 26 The Good Neighbor Policy: Changes and Continuities

• Schoultz, Beneath the United States, 272-315 • Documents 17-20

Feb. 28 Cracking Down

• Schoultz, Beneath the United States, 332-348 • Documents 21-23

Mar. 5 Guatemala, 1954

• Selected documents on Guatemala (single .pdf file containing multiple documents, listed as Document 24 in Moodle folder)

Mar. 7 The U.S. and the 1952 Bolivian Revolution

• Kevin Young, “Purging the Forces of Darkness: The United States, Monetary Stabilization, and the Containment of the Bolivian Revolution,” Diplomatic History 37, no. 3 (2013): 509-537

Essay 1 due: Mar. 12 No class Fri., 3/8

Mar. 14 No class

Mar. 19 The Cuban Threat

• Aviva Chomsky, A History of the Cuban Revolution, second edition (Malden, MA: Wiley- Blackwell, 2015), 54-74 • Documents 24-28

Mar. 21 No More Cubas

• Schoultz, Beneath the United States, 349-366 • Grandin, Empire’s Workshop, 46-51 • Documents 29-30

Mar. 26 The First September 11th

• Grandin, Empire’s Workshop, 52-64 • Documents 31-35

Mar. 31 Carter, Reagan, and the Nicaraguan Revolution of 1979

• Grandin, Empire’s Workshop, Chapter 3 • Documents 36-41

Apr. 2 Terror and Resistance in El Salvador

• Danner, The Massacre at El Mozote, 3-84, 262-272 • Documents 42-44

Apr. 4 Covering Up El Mozote

• Danner, The Massacre at El Mozote, 85-161

Apr. 9 Central America in the U.S. Media

• Danner, The Massacre at El Mozote, 175-253 • Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (New York: Pantheon, 1988), 1-35

Apr. 11 Citizen Solidarity

• Grandin, Empire’s Workshop, Chapter 4 • Document 45

Apr. 16 Battling the “Vietnam Syndrome”

• The Panama Deception (1992) (view film through link on Moodle or via YouTube) • William Blum, “Grenada, 1979-1984,” in Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions since World War II, revised edition (London: Zed, 2003), 269-277

Apr. 18 Neoliberalism

• Grandin, Empire’s Workshop, Chapter 5 • Documents 46-47

Apr. 23 Haiti: Damming the Flood

• Peter Hallward, “Option Zero in Haiti,” New Left Review 27 (May-June 2004): 23-47 • Dan Coughlin and Kim Ives, “WikiLeaks Haiti: Let Them Live on $3 a Day,” The Nation, June 1, 2011 • Document 48

Apr. 25 The Pink Tide and the Right-Wing Resurgence

• Grandin, Empire’s Workshop, 196-244 • Kevin Young, “Two, Three, Many Colombias,” Foreign Policy in Focus, December 29, 2010 • Documents 49-53 Essay 2 due: 8 Fri., 4/26

Apr. 30 Refugees and Historical Responsibility

• Greg Grandin and Elizabeth Oglesby, “Who Killed Jakelin Caal Maquín at the US Border?” The Nation, December 17, 2018 • Greg Grandin and Elizabeth Oglesby, “Washington Trained Guatemala’s Mass Murderers – and the Border Patrol Played a Role,” The Nation, January 3, 2019 • Kevin Young, “Washing U.S. Hands of the Dirty Wars: News Coverage Erases Washington’s Role in State Terror,” NACLA Report on the Americas 46, no. 2 (2013): 58-61 • Documents 54-55

APPENDIX 1:

Documents

All documents are available on Moodle, organized by number in the Documents folder. When citing these documents you may use the document number and the truncated format below, in addition to supplying the page number of any information or quotations that you cite.

When reading each document, think about the following questions:

• Who wrote it, and in what historical context? • What objectives do you think the author(s) were hoping to achieve? What specific sentences, phrases, or words reveal the authors’ intentions? • What assumptions or attitudes are implicit in the document? • What sorts of facts do the author(s) cite? What facts do they omit or deemphasize? To what values or emotions do they appeal?

1. James Monroe, “The Monroe Doctrine,” 1823 2. John Quincy Adams, “To Hugh Nelson,” 1823 3. “The War on Mexico” (selected documents), 1840s 4. Josiah Strong, Our Country, 1885 5. Richard Olney, “The Olney Memorandum,” 1895 6. Theodore Roosevelt, “The Manly Virtues and Practical Politics,” 1894 7. John J. Ingalls, “America’s War for Humanity,” 1898 8. U.S. Congress, “The Platt Amendment,” 1901 9. John Hammill, “A Soldier’s Solution,” ca. 1900 10. “Platform of the American Anti-Imperialist League,” 1899 (pp. 3-27 optional) 11. Theodore Roosevelt, Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, 1904 12. Woodrow Wilson, “The Mobile Speech,” 1913 13. U.S. Ambassador Jefferson Caffery to Department of State (four telegrams), 1928-29 14. Charles Evan Hughes, “A Defense of Intervention,” 1928 15. The Mexican Constitution, 1917 16. José Ingenieros, “An Argentine Denunciation of Imperialism,” 1922 17. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, “The Good Neighbor Policy,” 1933 18. Seventh International Conference of American States, “The United States Accepts the Non-Intervention Principle,” 1933 19. Samuel Flagg Bemis, “A Historian Defends U.S. Policy,” 1943 20. Carleton Beals, “A Skeptic Views the Good Neighbor Policy,” 1938 21. U.S. Department of State, “Chilean Labor and U.S. Capital,” 1946 22. George F. Kennan, “A Realist Views Latin America,” 1950 23. U.S. National Security Council, “United States Objectives and Courses of Action with Respect to Latin America,” 1953 24. Selected Documents on Guatemala, 1944-1954 25. Fidel Castro, “Second Declaration of Havana,” 1962 26. Ernesto Guevara, “Two, Three, Many Vietnams,” 1966 27. Lester Mallory, “Inauguration by the U.S. Government of a Policy to Weaken the Cuban Economy,” 1960 28. L.L. Lemnitzer, “Justification for U.S. Military Intervention in Cuba,” 1962 29. John F. Kennedy, “Lessons of the Bay of Pigs,” 1961

30. John F. Kennedy, “The Alliance for Progress,” 1961 31. Humberto Castello Branco speech, 1967 32. Selected documents on U.S. intervention in Chile, early 1970s 33. “Never Again: National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons,” 1983 34. Memorandum of Conversation on Argentina, 1976 35. U.S. Embassy, “The Problem of Those Who Disappeared,” 1978 36. Ronald Reagan, “The Fear of Communism in Central America,” 1984 37. Committee of Santa Fe, A New Inter-American Policy for the Eighties, 1980 38. Edgar Chamorro, Affidavit Submitted to the International Court of Justice for the Case Nicaragua vs. United States of America, 1985 39. International Court of Justice, Nicaragua v. USA, 1986 40. “Story of Carmen Mendieta, killed by Contras near Rio Blanco,” 1987 41. Interview with José Figueres, former Costa Rican President, regarding the situation in Nicaragua, 1986 42. Gustavo Gutiérrez, “Liberation Theology,” 1973 43. Archbishop Oscar Romero, “The Church and Human Liberation,” 1980 44. Norma López, “Testimony of a Lay Worker,” ca. early 1980s 45. Audrey Seniors, “Solidarity,” 1986 46. Lawrence Summers memo, 1991 47. Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), “Sixth Declaration of the Lacandón Jungle,” 2005 48. David Brooks, “The Underlying Tragedy,” 2010 49. “Interview with Rina Bertaccini, President of the Movement for Peace, Sovereignty and Solidarity between Peoples,” 2011 50. Latin American Studies Association, “LASA Resolution on Obama’s Latin American Policy,” 2013 51. Kenneth Rapoza, “Market Considers Bolsonaro Brazil’s ‘Last Chance’ to Reform Economy,” 2019 52. Sean Purdy, “Here’s What Jair Bolsonaro Thinks,” 2018 53. Federico Finchelstein, “Jair Bolsonaro’s Model Isn’t Berlusconi. It’s Goebbels,” 2018 54. Pioneer Valley Workers Center, “Poor Huddled Masses Not Welcome,” 2018 55. Pioneer Valley Workers Center, “Immigrants in the United States: Myth vs. Fact,” 2018

APPENDIX 2:

Maps

APPENDIX 3:

Independent Sources for News on Latin America and the Caribbean

⇒ North American Congress on Latin America: www.nacla.org

⇒ Democracy Now! www.democracynow.org

⇒ Center for Economic and Policy Research – Latin American News Roundup: http://org.salsalabs.com/o/967/blastContent.jsp

⇒ Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting: www.fair.org