Ambassadors in Foreign Policy: The Influence of Individuals on U.S.-Latin American Policy (review)

292 SAIS REVIEW there is no automatic link between aid and development, foreign assistance can still play a role in addressing the needs of the poor of the Third World. Riddell concludes by stressing the need for two basic trends. On the one hand, there is the need to increase aid and its reallocation among poor countries . In 1982, 34.1 percent of allocable aid went to countries containing 2.7 percent of the developing world (that is, mostly middle-income economies), averaging $102 per capita, whereas the remaining 3.3 billion people received $5.6 per capita. On the other hand, Riddell also stresses the need to improve the effectiveness of aid by doing and publishing more evaluations, coordinating the criteria for these evaluations, and finally learning and sharing the experience. Ambassadors in Foreign Policy: The Influence of Individuals on U.S.-Latin American Policy. C. Neale Ronning and Albert Vannucci, ed. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1987. 168 pp. $36.95/cloth. Reviewed byJames B. Sitrick,Jr., M. A. /M.H. S. candidate, SAIS-TheJohns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. Modern means of communications have led many to believe that the role of ambassador has lost its importance and that the influence of the person serving as ambassador has similarly declined. In Latin America, specifically, North American diplomacy has often been seen merely as a reflection of the concerns of large multinational corporations, with the U.S. ambassador as a lackey of these profit-seeking interests. Ambassadors in Foreign Policy refutes these notions with accounts of six ambassadors who played crucial roles during important periods of change in five major Latin American countries during the twentieth century. A concluding chapter examines how these individuals defined the role of U.S. ambassador and how their actions both affected U.S. policy toward their host country and may have often helped to shape the internal politics of that nation. The editors chose the ambassadors included according to the criteria "that during the posting, something of lasting importance occurred for both U.S. foreign policy toward the country and region and for the Latin American country itself." Some chapters emphasize the historical context in which the ambassador was posted, others, the individual's role in State Department internal politics; some, the extent to which the ambassador had a hand in shaping U.S. policy. The book demonstrates that U.S. ambassadors, acting as individuals, have been able to influence events during critical periods in the history of several major Latin American nations. Another theme is that merely the threat of displeasing the United States or the promise that an action will have U.S. support has often been great enough to influence the political actors within Latin countries . The book also confirms the widely held assumption that the U.S. embassy constitutes one of the more significant actors within a Latin country. The first chapter gives a detailed account of the state of Mexican-American relations in the late 1920s and of the personal views of Dwight Morrow, appointed ambassador in 1927. In attempting to deal with the Mexicans instead BOOK REVIEWS 293 of dictating policy to them, Morrow, in the words of Richard Melzer: "Could thus be considered a prototype of the Good Neighbor Policy." In the case of Sumner Welles, ambassador to Cuba during the turbulent year of 1933, threats of direct U.S. military intervention, were coupled in Cuban minds with the memory of U.S. occupation. Consequently, during his six months as ambassador Welles had sufficient influence to figure in the overthrow of two Cuban presidents. In the words of author Louis Perez, "perhaps Welles's lasting impact was to move [Fulgencio] Batista from the shadows of the political world into center stage." Albert Vannucci's chapter on Spruille Braden's posting to Argentina demonstrates how the effects of U.S. pressure apparently ran counter to the ambassador 's wishes. According to Vannucci, Braden's antipathy to Perón was significant in inflaming Argentine nationalism and consequently in reducing U.S. influence in Argentina. This chapter also explores the extent to which Braden's views and subsequent actions as ambassador were shaped by the State...