The US--An Inconsistant Neighbor

Over one hundred fifty years ago the United States made its first venture into Latin American foreign policy with the Monroe Doctrine. At the time the British Foreign Minister scoffed at "the Yankee cockboat trailing in the wake of the British frigate."

He was right. Just not quite right enough.

A cursory examination of US-Latin American relations shows that the enormous mass of land and people south of us is at best a very small dingy bobbing in the wake of larger foreign policy concerns. For that matter the UK, Spain, Italy, and, on occasion, Germany have placed one or more of the many countries of South and Central America far higher on the to-do list than has the US.

South and Central America only sporadically drift through Washington's crosshairs. Normally these occur during war or the threat of war (usually seen as a potential abridgement of the Monroe Doctrine, construed broadly.) Every now and then Washington wakes up from its seemingly endless siesta to cough out a new direction in our relations with the land to the south.

Secretary of State Olney's "sixteen inch gun" memorandum which provoked a tad of saber rattling in Great Britain was an early example of the Monroe Doctrine's impact on our view of South America. More famous and long term in its effect was Theodore Roosevelt's Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, which went hand in hand with the need to protect the seaward approaches to the Panama Canal.

(Completeness of the historical record requires the Geek to note that TR fabricated the "revolt" which created Panama from the body of Columbia. In large measure, TR did this because of apprehension within portions of the Progressive Internationalists about the prospect of Germany moving to build a trans-isthmian canal. The Monroe Doctrine shook like half congealed jello over that prospect.)

The Roosevelt Corollary led to the stability oriented occupations of the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Nicaragua. These interventions were seen as required by the Monroe Doctrine and US interests at the time. Hindsight both in the US and Latin America strongly questioned the wisdom and the long term effects of our efforts in the construction of democracy.

The Monroe Doctrine was shrugged off and Uncle Sam woke from a nap of benign neglect with the creation of the Good Neighbor Policy during the administration of Franklin Roosevelt. One effect of this "new direction" was the formation of the Rio Pact and the concomitant creation of the Organization of American States.

The potential of the Good Neighbor Policy (if any) was prevented from full development by World War II. Whether mentioned by name or not, the Ghost of President Monroe rose from the grave with a speed that would do Dracula proud as the US sought bases, provided weapons, and enlisted allies in the Great Crusade in Europe.

The Cold War kept the Monroe Doctrine stalking the hemisphere with policy implications for the region that were not always positive. The US administrations and congresses were eager to confuse the appearance of short-term order under a repressive government with the reality of long-term stability.

The intellectual and realpolitik bankruptcy of reflexive support for repressive regimes was brought home dramatically with the success (in largest measure assured by a single critical decision by President Eisenhower) of the 26th of July Movement headed by Fidel Castro. Shortly thereafter the long dictatorship of Trujillo was ended in the Dominican Republic, but not in a way that met either the best interests of the Dominican people or US policy.

In between the success of Castro and the fall of Trujillo, the US tried yet another "new direction" in Latin American policy. The Kennedy Administration brought forth, in a typical blare of Camelot Era hype, something called the Alliance For Progress, which promised all sorts of economic goodies for our neighbors to the south.

The potential (if any) of the Alliance was never realised as Congress and the Johnson Administration saw higher priorities in the War on Poverty and the War in Vietnam. Latin America, with the exception of that ever present US bete noir, Cuba, faded into the background.

The Ghost of President Monroe went back to the crypt with only occasional appearances as in the Nixon "two track" strategy in Chile. Or Ronald Reagan's adventures in counterinsurgency and regime change in El Salvador and Nicaragua. The lesson was simple: A whiff of Marx brings Monroe out of the pine box.

In more recent years we Americans have been quite content to pull our metaphorical sombreros down over our eyes and sleep. Every now and then the sound of gunfire in the War on Drugs (a war that does not involve the Spirit of James Monroe) rouses us to send lawyers, guns, and money to governments who promise to use them to rout out and kill drug thugs.

After a few years though even the War on Drugs became repetitious and boring enough so that we fell back into a dozing daze. What the hey! There was all that nifty Arab terrorist stuff.

And, didn't you hear? The Soviet Union is kaput! Communism is dead. Unless there is a connection with Iran or al-Qaeda, the Ghost of Monroe can rest in peace forevermore.

The Geek is all for letting the Monroe Doctrine slumber. He is not all for ignoring the swath of the globe down south of the Rio Grande del Norte.

Consider Hugo Chavez, the neo-Castroite jefe of Venezuela. While the current administration has been focused on the Global War on Terrorism and Great Adventures in Regime Change, something quite unpleasant to our current and future national interest has been underway down very far south of the border.

While Sr Chavez might have originally come into office in a properly democratic election, his more recent record (including the attempted recall vote which Chavez won in a disputable election) shows him to be a man for whom the democratic process is a disposable tool.

The Geek is not going to offer an assessment of Chavez' potential as a benevolent despot beyond noting with interest the outflow of the Venezuelan middle class to nearby countries such as Panama. There must be a reason, a good reason, for these established folks to be taking the next stage out of Dodge.

Far under the radar of the mainstream media and the neocon ninnies alike, Sr Chavez has been busy. Oh, the Geek doesn't simply mean with such mundane internal matters as suppressing freedom of the electronic media or nationalizing the odd oil firm or two. Mere bagatelles those. Hardly worth tipping the sombrero back off the eyes.

No, what the Geek is referring to is how the beaver-busy Chavez has been cultivating his regional garden. Beyond establishing tighter and tighter ties with his fellow-travelling leaders in Ecuador and Bolivia, Sr Chavez has been using his personal charisma and lots of oil money to establish connections in Columbia and elsewhere in the continent. (Of course Sr Chavez' affections for and ties with Castro's Cuba require no comment.)

Sr Chavez has not been ignoring the larger world either. Iran has increasingly cozy relations with Venezuela.

And, why not, the Geek asks. The two regimes have several features in common. Both have beaucoup oil money. Both detest the United States. Both have the policy interest and desire to defeat the US whenever and where ever possible.

Under Chavez, Venezuela has been sidling closer to other hostile states such as North Korea and Syria. Nor has the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry been indifferent to the potentials of closer relations with the Peoples' Republic of China.

Perhaps with these considerations in play, the current administration (or its successor) will be tempted to re-awaken the Ghost of Monroe. Or, more optimistically, the US will rouse from its most recent fit of absentmindedness regarding South America and seek yet another "new direction."

One strong contender for the next new direction is the creation of yet more free-trade zones in the manner of NAFTA or its Central American equivalent--the one which Costa Rica by a narrow margin of votes chose to join last weekend.

Liberals and trans-national corporations (the strangest of strange bed mates) have a seemingly bottomless faith in the power of free-trade to counter all the icky-poo things that go bump in the foreign policy night. Progressives and true conservatives (another passingly weird political alliance) do not share this belief.

(The Geek is officially an agnostic on the question since not enough time has elapsed for a genuine historical trajectory to have emerged. Still, he shudders every time he passes the local Walmart and thinks about the implications of its Adventure in Globalization.)

History demonstrates convincingly that the US has never been either a good or a bad neighbor to South America. It shows instead that the US has been the most inconsistent of neighbors.

History also demonstrates beyond even the most unreasonable doubt that the worst sort of foreign policy is an inconsistent one.

We have to get a grip on that reality. And change it. Or, suffer the consequences of sleeping at the switch.