Latin America's Wars

by Scheina, Robert L.

• ISBN13: 9781574884524
• ISBN10: 1574884522
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-07-01
• Publisher: Potomac Books Inc

Summary

The second volume in Robert Scheina's definitive study of Latin American military history draws upon years of extensive research and teaching in the field. Although wags in the United States have quipped that if Latin America's military forces were not constantly seeking political power they would have nothing to do, Scheina describes how these men have not only bravely defended their own homelands from foreign enemies but have also gone abroad to fight in both world wars and in the Korean War. This groundbreaking volume also examines the numerous U.S. interventions in Latin America during the twentieth century and the various motivations for them, ranging from the petty interests of influential North American businesses to global concerns with grand strategy which, for example, resulted in the building of the Panama Canal. Scheina concludes by exploring the role of Latin America in the Cold War and Colombia's ongoing conflict with the drug cartels. He focuses on operational history in the context of war as an instrument of politics and society, including insightful analyses of the military as an institution and of its relations with civilian government. Latin America's Warsfills a void in the literature, broadens U.S. readers' understanding of their neighbors, and serves as a point of departure for new scholarship.

Table of Contents

Illustrations and Maps	p. xi
Preface	p. xiii
Acknowledgments	p. xvii
Abbreviations	p. xxi
Introduction: What Were the Causes for War in Twentieth-Century Latin America?	p. xxiii
Political Intervention by the United States
The Giving and the Taking of Panama, 1903	p. 1
An Early Twentieth-Century Boundary Dispute
The Acre War, 1903	p. 7
Early Twentieth-Century Interclass Revolution and Religious War
The Mexican Revolution, 1910-20	p. 11
The Cristero Rebellion, 1926-29	p. 29
An Extrahemispheric War
World War I and Brazil, 1917-18	p. 35
Economic Interventions by the United States
Haiti, 1915-34	p. 41
The Dominican Republic, 1916-24	p. 48
Nicaragua, 1927-33	p. 55
Interclass Struggles
Naval Mutinies, 1910-31	p. 73
International Communist Subversion, 1928-35	p. 78
Major Boundary Disputes between the World Wars
The Chaco War, 1932-35	p. 85
The Leticia Dispute, 1932-33	p. 109
Ecuador and Peru, 1941, 1981, and 1995	p. 114
Mid-Twentieth-Century Intraclass Wars
Forging Modern Brazil, 1922-32	p. 127
The Peruvian Senior Military versus the Apristas, 1930-68	p. 133
The Argentine Senior Military versus Peronismo, 1951-66	p. 145
Another Extrahemispheric War
World War II, Brazil and Mexico, 1942-45	p. 161
Post-World War II Intraclass Wars
Central America and the Caribbean, 1944-54	p. 173
Paraguay, 1947	p. 185
Colombia, La Violencia, 1948-64	p. 189
The Early Cold War Struggles
Colombia in Korea, 1950-53	p. 197
The Guatemalan Revolution, 1954	p. 201
Mid-Twentieth-Century Interclass Revolutions
The Bolivian Revolution, 1952	p. 207
The Cuban Revolution, 1956-59	p. 215
The Venezuela Revolution, 1958	p. 229
Early Cold War Intraclass Conflicts
The Year of the Pre-Foco Follies, 1959	p. 237
Military Operations by Cuban Exiles, 1960-65	p. 243
Venezuela--Reactionary Right and Radical Left, 1960-62	p. 255
The Era of the Early Foco Wars, 1962-65	p. 265
The Era of the Late Foco Wars, 1965-74	p. 278
Urban Guerrilla Wars, 1963-76	p. 289
Cold War Border Disputes
The "Soccer War," 1969	p. 301
The Malvinas (Falkland) Islands, 1982	p. 307
Late Cold War Intraclass Conflicts
Chile and the Overthrow of Allende, 1973	p. 319
Cuban Troops in Africa, 1960-91	p. 327
The Era of Fidel's Legacy, 1974-91	p. 339
Peru: The Shining Path, 1980-92	p. 360
An Economic War
Colombia's Drug War, 1982-2001	p. 373
Postscript: What Were the Surprises?	p. 385
Notes	p. 387
Index to Full Bibliographical Citations	p. 491
Index	p. 505
About the Author	p. 531
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