Brands takes aim at those mainstream historians writing on Western Hemispheric relations who have portrayed the United States as an overwhelmingly powerful hegemon whose destructive interventions are responsible for the region's sufferings. Delving into Latin American archives, Brands counters that Latin Americans have been active participants in their own history
in both their domestic politics and international diplomacy. During the Cold ... Read moreWar, Washington and Moscow often had poor understandings of these local dynamics, so their ill-designed policies frequently failed; even those strategies that momentarily succeeded generated blowback and unintended consequences. As Brands persuasively argues, the true story of Latin America's role in the Cold War lies in the dynamic interactions between international forces and domestic actors. Tragically, both the United States and the Soviet Union exacerbated the region's already polarized politics, and the ensuing violent clashes rendered asunder fragile democracies. Fortunately, today many citizens in Latin America and many in Washington policy circles have drawn the right lessons from history, seeking to strengthen democratic institutions
and not overreacting to the provocations of the latest crop of neopopulists.
Richard Feinberg Foreign Affairs 20110301 Globally, analysts claim that the Cold War provided stability and structure. Brands finds a different outcome in Latin America of the four decades of the Cold War (i.e., the 1940s through the early 1990s)...Brands's study will stand as the definitive work in the years ahead.
J. A. Rhodes Choice 20110401 Show Less