This book is the first comprehensive study of the Reagan administration's policy toward the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet in Chile. Based on new primary and archival materials, as well as on original interviews with former US and Chilean officials, it traces the evolution of Reagan policy from an initial 'close embrace' of the junta to a re-evaluation of whether Pinochet was a risk to long-term US interests in Chile and, finally, to an acceptance in Washington of the need to push for a return to democracy. It provides fresh insights into the bureaucratic conflicts that were a key part of the Reagan decision-making process and reveals not only the successes but also the limits of US influence on Pinochet's regime. Finally, it contributes to the ongoing debate about the US approach toward democracy promotion in the Third World over the past half century.
This is a comprehensive study of US policy towards Cuba in the post-Cold War era. Drawing on interviews with Bush and Clinton policy-makers, congressional participants in the policy debate, and leaders of the anti-sanctions business community, it makes an important contribution to our knowledge of the evolution of American policy during this period. This study argues that Bush and Clinton operated within the same Cold War framework that shaped the Cuba policy of their predecessors. But it also demonstrates that US policy after 1989 was driven principally by the imperatives of domestic politics. The authors show how Bush and Clinton corrupted the policy-making process by subordinating rational decision-making in the national interest to narrow political calculations. The result was the pursuit of a policy that had nothing to do with its stated objectives of promoting reforms in Cuba and everything to do with getting rid of Fidel Castro's regime.
This is a comprehensive study of US policy towards Cuba in the post-Cold War era. Drawing on interviews with Bush and Clinton policy-makers, congressional participants in the policy debate, and leaders of the anti-sanctions business community, it makes an important contribution to our knowledge of the evolution of American policy during this period. This study argues that Bush and Clinton operated within the same Cold War framework that shaped the Cuba policy of their predecessors. But it also demonstrates that US policy after 1989 was driven principally by the imperatives of domestic politics. The authors show how Bush and Clinton corrupted the policy-making process by subordinating rational decision-making in the national interest to narrow political calculations. The result was the pursuit of a policy that had nothing to do with its stated objectives of promoting reforms in Cuba and everything to do with getting rid of Fidel Castro's regime.
This book is the first comprehensive study of the Reagan administration's policy toward the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet in Chile. Based on new primary and archival materials, as well as on original interviews with former US and Chilean officials, it traces the evolution of Reagan policy from an initial 'close embrace' of the junta to a re-evaluation of whether Pinochet was a risk to long-term US interests in Chile and, finally, to an acceptance in Washington of the need to push for a return to democracy. It provides fresh insights into the bureaucratic conflicts that were a key part of the Reagan decision-making process and reveals not only the successes but also the limits of US influence on Pinochet's regime. Finally, it contributes to the ongoing debate about the US approach toward democracy promotion in the Third World over the past half century.
The United States played a decisive role in Cuba's political and economic development during the first half of the twentieth century. The emergence in the 1950s of a broad-based opposition movement to the Batista dictatorship was viewed by American policy makers as a threat to American interests. The paramount concern of the Eisenhower administration was to deny political power to the Castro forces, a goal pursued by all means short of direct military intervention. Subsequently, American policy toward Cuba, as Morris Morley shows in this book, has focused on reasserting US influence over the island. Drawing on personal interviews, classified documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, and other primary sources, this study presents the most comprehensive analysis to date of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations' efforts to isolate Cuba politically within Latin America and economically throughout the capitalist world. During the Nixon, Ford, and Carter presidencies, as
This study of U.S. policy toward Nicaragua during the Nixon, Ford, and Carter presidencies reveals the fundamental importance Washington placed on preserving state institutions in Latin America while
Empire or Republic? makes the necessary, but much overlooked, link between our nation's international policies and the domestic situation. The authors contend that the Reagan, Bush and Clinton adminis
