Cold War Anti-Communism and the Reconfiguration of U.S. Informal Empire in Latin America

Zijia Niu

doi:10.54691/s29hf966

Authors

Zijia Niu

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54691/s29hf966

Keywords:

Cold War; U.S. imperialism; Latin America; informal empire; containment; Cuba; Chile; Panama.

Abstract

This paper determines whether the Cold War led to the development of modern American imperialist ideology and practice in Latin America. It proposes that the Cold War did not give rise to American imperialism in isolation; instead, it transformed earlier forms of informal empire by translating economic dependence, military influence and cultural desire for freedom into the language of anti-communism, democracy and freedom. Through a comparative historical study, this paper will take Cuba, Chile and Panama as cases to explore the different forms of informal empire. Cuba is a case study of how pre-Cold War dependence and the Platt Amendment turned into a conflict over revolution, containment, and different models of modernity. Chile shows how the United States used covert operations, economic pressure and other means to undermine the democratically elected socialist government. Panama is a typical case of control over key facilities that does not amount to direct colonial rule. In all of the above cases, the United States has presented intervention as defensive protection for the "free world", but in practice, it has restricted the political and economic autonomy of Latin American countries. Therefore, the paper takes the Cold War anti-communism movement as a particular example of modernisation for old imperial practices.

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