America’s Back Yard

 Muera Nixon! Death to Nixon!

A barricade blocked the road. The car rocked wildly as the chanting mob tried to overturn it. Rocks and iron bars thudded against its roof and shattered its windows. Inside the car, Richard Nixon Vice President of the United States was in great danger.

It was May 13, 1958, in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela. Nixon was visiting the city as part of a goodwill tour of Latin America. But he found only hatred on the streets of Caracas. Nixon's life was saved when a truck forced its way through the barricade and his car was able to accelerate away. When news of the attack reached the United States the American people were shocked and angry. But it made them realize how much some Latin Americans hated and resented their country.

Latin America is the name given to the mainly Spanish-speaking countries which lie to the south of the United States. Ever since the early 19th century, the United States has taken a special interest in what happens in these countries. They are its closest neighbors and so it is important to the safety of the United States to make sure that no foreign enemies gain influence in them.

In the past, this has often meant that the rulers of these Latin American countries have been little more than American puppets. Their agriculture and industry have frequently been American-controlled too. A classic example was Cuba. Up to the I950’s its railroads, banks, electricity industry and many of its biggest farms were all American-owned.

In 1933 President Franklin Roosevelt promised that the United States would respect the right of Latin American countries to control their own affairs. He called this the "good neighbor" policy. I would dedicate this nation to the policy of the good neighbor, said "The neighbor who respects the rights of others."

Roosevelt ordered to me the American soldiers and officials who had been running the affairs of Latin American countries at one time or another for much of the past 30 years. Nicaragua, for example, had been occupied by American troops from 1912 to 1933. He also gave up the United States' claim to interfere ill Panama and Cuba whenever it wanted.

But many Latin Americans were not convinced by Roosevelt's talk about being a good neighbor. True the American troops had gone home. But the rulers who took over when the soldiers left the Somoza family who held power in Nicaragua from 1937 to 1979, for example usually did what the Americans expected of' them.

The Second World War brought better times for Latin America. All the raw materials that it could produce- copper, tin, oil, and countless others were used by the wartime factories of the United States. The result was more money and more jobs -, but also even more American control.