The Cuban Missile Crisis
Latin America – Recap
❖ Since the early 19th century the USA had seen Latin and South America as its sphere of
influence
❖ In 1823 President Monroe said that if the European powers tried to re-gain their newly
independent empires on the American continent it would be seen as aggression against
the United States
❖ This became known as the Monroe Doctrine and influenced US policy for decades. In 1898
America had gone to war with Spain to remove Spain’s influence from Cuba, and in the
1920s and 1930s while the US operated a policy of isolationism towards Europe, they
involved themselves in the affairs of Latin American countries such as Nicaragua and
Mexico. Their attitude to the Western hemisphere was very different from their attitude to
Europe
❖ In 1947 the US pushed for the signing of the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal
Assistance otherwise known as the Rio Pact (ratified in 1948), whereby an attack on one
American country was an attack on all
❖ The following year the Organisation of American States (OAS) was formed. Both aimed to
prevent the spread of communism on the American continent.
Guatemala 1954
❖ In 1954 the CIA backed an armed uprising against Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán, the elected
socialist leader of Guatemala
❖ Guzmán admired the Soviet system and had communists in his government and he
proposed to nationalise and share out land to the poor
❖ Some of the land he proposed to nationalise was owned by US companies such as the
United Fruit Company
❖ The CIA funded and trained a force led by anti-communist Castillo Armas, who landed in
1954 with an army of 150, supported by US air power
❖ The US-backed uprising succeeded and Guzmán’s government was replaced by a military
dictatorship friendly to the Americans, a dictatorship that killed over 100,000 Guatemalans
over the next 45 years
❖ Guatemala itself was not strategically that important to the US but Ike feared communism
could spread and the US was also worried about the security of the Panama Canal so he
acted. As far as the Americans were concerned this was about Containment
❖ Gaddis describes the coup as a ‘massive overreaction to a minor irritant
, ● The USA viewed the Caribbean and Latin America as its sphere of influence
● Historically, the Monroe Doctrine had given the USA a lead in the area and America was
determined to keep stability in that area for its own national interests
● The Cuban constitution gave USA island rights of intervention and naval bases around
Latin America – Recap
❖ Since the early 19th century the USA had seen Latin and South America as its sphere of
influence
❖ In 1823 President Monroe said that if the European powers tried to re-gain their newly
independent empires on the American continent it would be seen as aggression against
the United States
❖ This became known as the Monroe Doctrine and influenced US policy for decades. In 1898
America had gone to war with Spain to remove Spain’s influence from Cuba, and in the
1920s and 1930s while the US operated a policy of isolationism towards Europe, they
involved themselves in the affairs of Latin American countries such as Nicaragua and
Mexico. Their attitude to the Western hemisphere was very different from their attitude to
Europe
❖ In 1947 the US pushed for the signing of the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal
Assistance otherwise known as the Rio Pact (ratified in 1948), whereby an attack on one
American country was an attack on all
❖ The following year the Organisation of American States (OAS) was formed. Both aimed to
prevent the spread of communism on the American continent.
Guatemala 1954
❖ In 1954 the CIA backed an armed uprising against Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán, the elected
socialist leader of Guatemala
❖ Guzmán admired the Soviet system and had communists in his government and he
proposed to nationalise and share out land to the poor
❖ Some of the land he proposed to nationalise was owned by US companies such as the
United Fruit Company
❖ The CIA funded and trained a force led by anti-communist Castillo Armas, who landed in
1954 with an army of 150, supported by US air power
❖ The US-backed uprising succeeded and Guzmán’s government was replaced by a military
dictatorship friendly to the Americans, a dictatorship that killed over 100,000 Guatemalans
over the next 45 years
❖ Guatemala itself was not strategically that important to the US but Ike feared communism
could spread and the US was also worried about the security of the Panama Canal so he
acted. As far as the Americans were concerned this was about Containment
❖ Gaddis describes the coup as a ‘massive overreaction to a minor irritant
, ● The USA viewed the Caribbean and Latin America as its sphere of influence
● Historically, the Monroe Doctrine had given the USA a lead in the area and America was
determined to keep stability in that area for its own national interests
● The Cuban constitution gave USA island rights of intervention and naval bases around
