Before Iran-Contra :: essays research papers

Before Iran-ContraThe Development of Latin American Foreign indemnityDuring the Reagan AdministrationWhen the Reagan administration first took office early in 1981, more of its key members cherished to make a move as in short as possible in response to the growing realm of Soviet power in the world. One area that the U.S. felt a down of pressure from was Latin America. Even before the advent of communism, US knead in Latin America was always a touchy subject. As early as Teddy Roosevelts term as president, the US began a course of foreign policy that protected US investments in Latin America. While being decidedly pro-imperialistic in the dealings with these tiny neighbors, Roosevelt created a dollar diplomacy relationship and resorted to a devious policy of preventive intervention in dealings with Latin America. Not surprisingly, there were non many American supporters in those countries, except, of course, for the American companies exploiting the native populations to m aximise profits. But not until the late seventies, with the threat of communist expansion into important America, did the US again focus their attention on Latin American foreign policy affairs. From the beginning, the Reagan administration displayed concern about Nicaragua becoming another(prenominal) Cuba. Nicaragua showed signs of becoming an armed camp from which trained guerillas would be sent into the coterminous countries to start revolutionary movements, and the US began to think that their only choice was multitude intervention. But support for military intervention was not very familiar in the US among the public and legislature. The first Boland Amendment of 1982 capped the US pecuniary support for the contra rebels, and in successive years, amendments to the Boland Amendment dropped that number dangerously low. Congress remembered the lessons of the Vietnam War, and wanted to avoid the slow, steady build up to all-out war. Also, many of Reagans most trusted advisors were leftovers from the Nixon era. They had watched Vietnam fall shortly after the U.S. withdraw, followed closely by Laos and Cambodia, and the situation in Nicaragua seemed eerily familiar. Cringing at the memory of go away millions of South Vietnamese American supporters to suffer a dismal want at the hands of the NVA and Peoples Republic of Vietnam, the Reagan Administration was sleepless not to get so involved in the situation that they could not wash their hands of it if necessary. Therefore, the USs plan for challenging communism in Latin America changed.