Intimate Ties, Bitter Struggles: The United States and Latin America Since 1945 (review)

Until about 15 years ago, college professors had difficulty finding an appropriate textbook on U.S. relations with Latin America. Instructors can now choose between works by Lester Langley (1989, 2003), Peter H. Smith (1996, 2000), Lars Schoultz (1998), Don Coerver and Linda Hall (1999), Mark Gilderhus (2000), Kyle Longley (2002), and Joseph Smith (2005). This happy development reflects demographic changes. Increasing numbers of Latino students in colleges and universities are enrolling in courses on Latin American history and inter-American relations. Alan McPherson's concise account of U.S.-Latin American relations since 1945 represents the latest entry in the textbook sweepstakes. McPherson limits his survey to 145 pages and accompanies the text with 23 primary documents. The book contains endnotes but does not have a bibliography or bibliographic essay, which is a major shortcoming for a textbook.

McPherson emphasizes that "unequal interdependence," rather than the ramifications of the Cold War, characterizes inter-American relations in the post-war period. Trade, environmental issues, drug trafficking, immigration, and popular culture are the stuff of inter-American relations. The Cold War had been "hiding many integrative trends of the post-World War II era" (p. 111). McPherson notably opens his account of the post-1945 period not with an analysis of the Soviet-American confrontation but rather with an account of the opening of the first Sears department store in Mexico. He ends his survey by showing how the consumption of food and drinks demonstrates hemispheric interdependence.

Such a cultural approach leads to a demotion of political issues. McPherson's discussions of U.S. anti-Communist initiatives in Latin America, especially for the 1945 to 1970 period, are pedestrian. Guatemalans, Guyanese, Nicaraguans, and Salvadorans live in societies devastated by U.S. interventions. Chileans anguish over the horrors that beset their nation after the overthrow of Salvador Allende. Labelling the Cold War "a temporary event" (p. 145) might strike Latin Americans as somewhat arch.