The United States and Latin America
Spring 2000
Steven Volk
Monday and Friday, 12:00 - 1:15 PM (King 337)
How to reach me:
Office (Rice 309); Telephone: x8522
Email: steven.volk@oberlin.edu
WWW: http://www.oberlin.edu/~svolk
Basic Resources for Electronic Research in Foreign Policy Issues
In this course we will explore an overview of the basic elements which have shaped the U.S. presence in Latin America from the early nineteenth century to the present day, exploring both official (public) policy as well as the impact of corporations, ideologies, labor organizations, and others.
The course has four main objectives: 1) To provide a coherent narrative of U.S. actions in Latin America since the early 19th century. This involves both descriptive work (what actually happened) as well as analysis (how do we explain its occurrence). 2) To develop a discussion on "foreign policy" per se. Here, we will employ some cultural historical methods to interrogate policymakers' changing understanding of "foreign" as the United States expanded across the continent and then extra-continentally. We will also want to examine the links which are created between domestic and foreign policy in certain cases. For example, contemporary U.S. policy towards Cuba is best understood as domestic, not foreign policy. 3) To encourage you to develop your own ability to analyze from the basis of primary texts. A majority of the readings for the course will consist of primary sources and they must be read critically, not just for content. 4) To sharpen your research skills. You will be responsible for a significant research project at the end of the semester.
The course will meet twice a week. Generally speaking, on Mondays I will give a lecture on a specific aspect of U.S. foreign policy, following a general chronological approach. Between Monday and Friday, students are expected to complete the reading assignments. On Fridays (usually) we will discuss the readings (at times in one large group, at times in smaller groups, occasionally led by me, occasionally by you), view a film, or engage in some other activity.
CLASS REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING
All students will be responsible for keeping up with the weekly readings and for participating in class discussions. There are three paper assignments for the class. The first (3-4 pages) will require a close reading of a single primary source. The second (3-4 pages) will require a broader analysis of a specific topic. The third (10-12 pages) is a research paper which should reflect your ability to conduct independent research from both print and electronic sources. It can be based on any aspect of U.S. foreign policy in Latin America, either materials we have covered or others. You will be responsible for turning in a topic and preliminary bibliography for that paper in the second half of the semester.
Your final grade will be determined as follows: First paper (20%); second paper (30%); final research paper (50%).
Papers turned in late without permission (which must be requested prior to the due date) will be graded down one grade-step each day it is late. For example, a paper which deserved an "A" if handed in when due on February 28 would get an "A-" if handed in on February 29; a "B+" on March 1; a "B" on March 2, etc. The research paper will be due on the final day of the reading period (May 16). There will be no extensions granted unless you apply for and receive an official incomplete in the course.
Excessive absences from the class or the discussion sections will have an adverse effect on your final grade.
BOOKS AND OTHER RESOURCES
- Books Recommended for Purchase
All books and other reading materials are on reserve in the library. The following books are available for purchase on the South Hall bookstore:
Nick Cullathen, Secret History. The CIA's Classified Account of its Operations in Guatemala, 1952-54 (Stanford: Stanford University Press), 1999.Martha K. Huggins, Political Policing. The United States and Latin America (Durham: Duke University Press), 1998.
Thomas O'Brien, The Century of U.S. Capitalism in Latin America (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press), 1999.
Thomas Paterson, Contesting Castro: The United States and the Triumph of the Cuban Revolution (New York: Oxford University Press), 1996.
Lars Schoultz, Beneath the United States. A History of U.S. Policy Toward Latin America (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press), 1998.
David J. Weber, ed., Foreigners in Their Native Land. Historical Roots of the Mexican Americans (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press), 1973.
- Other Resources
There are a huge (and increasing) number of resources for the study of foreign policy on the Internet. These include not only such daily primary resources from the United States such as the New York Times or the Washington Post, both papers "of record," and newspapers from dozens of cities in Latin America, but massive data bases such as Lexis/Nexis, which is available in through OhioLINK. Lexis/Nexis adds about 14 million documents to its files each week and now billions documents on line. WorldCat can provide you access to the card catalogs of thousands of libraries around the world; First Search, one of the "World Cat" databases, provides reference sources to thousands of journals . OhioLINK Electronic Journal Service now provides full text journals of more than 2,000 journals. Dozens of index services are now available via the library's web pages, or on CD ROM in the library. Besides these sources, there are many extensive sites such as the National Security Archives that provide full text copies of government files that, previously, were not released to the public for 25 years if at all. You can also gain access to the daily press or listen to daily news reports from most Latin American countries via the Internet. Learning to use electronic resources is an important aspect of increasing your ability to research and understand U.S. actions in Latin America, and to help others do the same.
February 7, 11: Introduction and overview. Questions of approach and understanding
Lars Schoultz, Beneath the United States. A History of U.S. Policy Toward Latin America (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press), 1998. Preface.
Useful sources
Time Line of U.S.-American RelationsChronology: Instances of the Use of U.S. Military Force Abroad, 1798-1993
Feb. 14, 18: Early approaches to Latin America: Understanding the Monroe Doctrine
Schoultz, Beneath the United States, Chapter 1.
Richard W. Van Alstyne, "The Conception of an American Empire," and "The Birth of the American Leviathan, 1789-1828," in The Rising American Empire (NY: W.W. Norton, 1960), pp. 1-27 and 78-99.From: James W. Gantenbein, ed., The Evolution of Our Latin American Policy (New York: Octagon Books, 1971), pp. 301-322.
From the Internet
Farewell Address by George Washington
Feb. 21, 25: Historicizing the "foreign" in "foreign policy": Manifest Destiny and The Mexican War
David Weber, ed., Foreigners in their Native Land. Historical Roots of the Mexican Americans (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press), 1973. Parts II and III (pp. 51-138).Schoultz, Beneath the United States, Chapters 2, 3.
From the Internet
John L. O'Sullivan on "Manifest Destiny"
Useful sources
Time Line of US-Mexican War
First Paper Due Feb. 28
Feb. 28, March 3: Understanding 1898: The debate over "traditional" imperialism
Schoultz, Beneath the United States, Chapters 4-8.
Gantenbein, Evolution, pp. 326-358.
From the Internet
Alfred Mahan on Sea PowerJosiah Strong on Anglo-Saxon Predominance
Frederick Jackson Turner, "The Significance Of The Frontier In American History"
Henry Cabot Lodge, "For Intervention in Cuba"
Theodore Roosevelt: "Obstacles to Immediate Expansion, 1897" (A Confidential Letter to Mahan)
Albert J. Beveridge, "In Support of an American Empire"
Rudyard Kipling, "The White Man's Burden. (The United States and the Philippines, 1899)"
Useful sources
The Clayton-Bulwer TreatyTurner's entire book on the American Frontier (not required reading)
March 6, 10: "I'm Chiquita Banana and I'm Here to Say…" Business and U.S. policymaking
Thomas O'Brien, The Century of U.S. Capitalism in Latin America (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press), 1999. Introduction through Chapter 2 (pp. vii - 72).Schoultz, Beneath the United States, Chapters 10-15.
"Chiquita Secrets Revealed," Cincinnati Enquirer, May 3, 1998. [Far-reaching series on "Chiquita Banana" written by a reporter at the Cincinnati Enquirer and later removed by the newspaper's owners when it was disclosed that the articles were partially based on some illegally obtained memos and telephone conversations. Neither the newspaper nor "Chiquita" ever denied the allegations in the stories. To be posted to ERes at later date]
From the Internet
The Roosevelt CorollaryComments by Walter LaFebre on the Roosevelt Corollary
Henry Cabot Lodge, "Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine (1912)"
Useful sources
Chiquita Banana, Inc.
March 13: International law and U.S. interests in Central America. A man, a plan, a canal: Nicaragua?
[March 17: Film: Gringo in Mañana-Land, Deedee Halleck, dir.]
From the Internet
William Howard Taft, "Dollar Diplomacy"Woodrow Wilson, "The Tampico Affair"
March 20, 24: The Cold War. Guatemala, 1944-54
Nick Cullathen, Secret History. The CIA's Classified Account of its Operations in Guatemala, 1952-54 (Stanford: Stanford University Press), 1999. [Through p. 123]Schoultz, Beneath the United States, Chapters 16, 17.
O'Brien, The Century of U.S. Capitalism, Chapter 4 (pp. 101-136).
Useful sources
Report on the Guatemala Review (June 1996), Intelligence Oversight Board
Second Paper Due March 24
March 27, 31: Spring Break
April 3, 7: Challenges to U.S. regional hegemony: Cuba and hemispheric policy in the 1960s
Thomas Paterson, Contesting Castro: The United States and the Triumph of the Cuban Revolution (New York: Oxford Univ. Press), 1996. Entire book, skim Parts I and II.
From the Internet
Roy R. Rubottom, Jr. (Asst. Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs), "Communism in the Americas" (1958)
April 10, 14: Instruments of statecraft
Martha K. Huggins, Political Policing. The United States and Latin America (Durham: Duke University Press), 1998. Preface, Chapter 1, Chapter 4 - end.
Michael McClintock, "Towards a Doctrine of Special Warfare," "The Apparatus in the Field," and "Counterterror and Counterorganization," Instruments of Statecraft. U.S. Guerrilla Warfare, Counterinsurgency, Counterterrorism, 1940-1990 (New York: Pantheon, 1992), pp. 22-58; 179-196; 230-257.
Useful sources:
School of the Americas Manuals
April 17, 21: The Purposes of U.S. power. Central America in the 1980s
Robert W. Tucker, "The Purposes of American Power," Foreign Affairs 59:2 (Winter 1980/81): 240-274.Samuel Huntington, "Human Rights and American Power," Commentary 72:3 (September 1981): 37-43.
Jeanne Kirkpatrick, "Dictatorships and Double Standards," Commentary (November 1979): 34-45.
Useful sources
Nicaragua Project, National Security Archive, "The United States and the Nicaraguan Revolution"
April 24, 28: The cultural impact: From Donald Duck to Nike
Julianne Burton, "Don (Juanito) Duck and the Imperial-Patriarchal Unconscious: Disney Studios, the Good Neighbor Policy and Packaging of Latin America," in Andrew Parker, Mary Russo, Doris Sommer and Patricia Yaeger, eds., Nationalism and Sexualities (New York and London: Routledge, 1992), pp. 21-41.Charles Berquist, "Popular Culture and Democratic Values," Labor and the Course of American Democracy. U.S. History in Latin American Perspective (London: Verso, 1996), pp. 116-159.
May 1, 5: New actors and new issues: Labor and U.S. policy, from 1898 to NAFTA.
"The New Gospel. North American Free Trade," NACLA Report on the Americas Vol. XXIV, No. 6 (May 1991), 10-21, 30-36.
May 8, 12: Slouching towards the next crisis: Colombia
Jeremy Lennard, "A War Run on Drugs," The Guardian Weekend [London], November 13, 1999.
From the Internet
Colombia Assistance Package (January 11, 2000)
Final Research Paper Due May 16