Latin America during World War II (review)

World War II involved more than combat action between Axis and Allied forces. In Latin America, it fundamentally altered preexisting diplomatic, economic, military, and political arrangements. For a variety of reasons, individual Latin American republics responded differently to the conflict. Within each country, the war often touched various constituents in different ways. Still, World War II generated unmistakable changes with lasting consequences. Many governments improved their diplomatic relations with the United States. The few that resisted U.S. leadership—notably Argentina and Chile—forfeited material benefits. Several countries used the war to professionalize their armed forces. Two republics, Brazil and Mexico, joined the fighting coalition abroad. Many others made material contributions to hemispheric defense. Wartime economic conditions devastated certain sectors of the regional economy. Shipping and supply shortages, for example, wrecked the Central American banana industry with widespread economic, political, and social implications. World War II simultaneously encouraged the consolidation and modernization of profitable activities, such as Venezuelan oil production. Throughout, Latin Americans established innovative inter-American commercial networks to compensate for the loss of European and Asian markets. Politically, the war accelerated centralizing, state-building projects in countries such as Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil. World War II empowered labor organizations and political interest groups across the Americas; Allied ideology directly contributed to the demise of several high profile dictators, including Maximiliano Hernández Martínez (El Salvador), Jorge Ubico (Guatemala), and Getúlio Dornelles Vargas (Brazil). In these and other ways, World War II was a defining moment for Latin America.

Latin America during World War II, edited by Thomas M. Leonard and John F. Bratzel, contains insightful essays on the region's wartime experience. The editors open with an accessible overview of the subject. Thereafter, individual contributors, established or emerging scholars, explore wartime happenings in a specific country or area. In combination, the writers show the conflict's diverse impact on the Americas. They also reveal how the Latin American republics used the war to their own advantage. Geographic location, they conclude, determined the challenges and opportunities republics encountered during World War II. On their own, several essays contain fresh information and analyses. After decades of internal strife, Monica Rankin explains, the ideology of industrialization became a source of national unity in Mexico. According to David Sheinin, the United States fundamentally misread Argentine neutrality during World War II. Peruvian leaders manipulated the inter-American obsession with hemispheric solidarity, Daniel M. Masterson and Jorge Ortiz Sotelo show, to extend their northern frontier at Ecuador's expense. Wanting stability in Panama, the United States inadvertently encouraged the growth of Panamanian nationalism, Orlando J. Pérez finds. Eric Paul Roorda considers how strongman Rafael Trujillo, a paradoxical ally, strengthened his control in the Dominican Republic as other Latin American dictators faltered. Two essays, however, will disappoint readers. Andrew Lefebvre discusses Falangist sentiment (or lack thereof) in Puerto Rico to the exclusion of other important developments on the strategic island. And George M. Lauderbaugh's short treatment of the Bolivarian nations (Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela) does not do justice to the total impact of the war in those republics. Each country deserved its own chapter. In addition, the editors might have included a brief epilogue or conclusion to pull the essays and organizing ideas together. Even so, this compilation is an important addition to the historiography of Latin America and World War II. It weaves related—but too often disconnected—scholarship into a coherent whole. In doing so, Latin America during World War II is the first attempt at a comprehensive account of the region at war in the last twenty-five years. The book employs the most recent scholarship to deepen our understanding of the subject. It likewise suggests areas for further research. The collection is ideal for students, generalists, and specialists wanting to learn more about the Western Hemisphere.