America’s Backyard reveals the US role in the darkest periods of Latin American history, including Pinochet’s coup in Chile, the Contra War in Nicaragua and the death squads in El Salvador.
America’s Backyard includes chapters on drugs, economy and culture. It explains why US drug policy has caused widespread environmental damage yet failed to reduce the supply of cocaine. It looks at the United States’ economic stake in Latin America and the strategies of the big corporations. It also shows how US policy-makers and the media have used racist and negative stereotypes of Latin Americans to justify their policies.
Praise for America’s Backyard
‘Packed with telling information and written with both verve and attention to detail, this book addresses the key issues in a perennially uneven and generally unjust relationship. Readers coming to the theme for the first time will benefit from a lucid synthesis of the voluminous literature in the field, whilst those more familiar with Pan-American affairs will find much useful material and discussion on developments in recent years.’
James Dunkerley, University of London
‘A useful and timely account of US strategy towards Latin America over the past half century, revealing its intrinsic weaknesses and the profound ignorance and prejudice of US policymakers. Grace Livingstone’s book covers wide ground in an original and compelling narrative.’
Richard Gott, author of Cuba: A New History.
‘The US in Latin America – good neighbour or big bad wolf? Grace Livingstone sets aside the pious euphemisms of a past age and shows it has been much more the latter than the former. She also shows how US hegemony is draining away as the republics start forging their own destiny at last.’
Hugh O’Shaughnessy, author of Pinochet: The Politics of Torture
‘It’s brilliant’. Tony Benn MP
Table of Contents
- 1. Introduction
- 2. The Monroe Doctrine to the Second World War
- 3. The Cold War: The Guatemalan Coup and the Cuban Revolution
- 4. The Alliance for Progress
- 5. The Military Governments of the 1970s
- 6. Reagan and the Central American Tragedy
- 7. The End of the Cold War, 1989 – 2001
- 8. George W. Bush and the War on Terror
- 9. Why US Drugs Policy Doesn’t Work
- 10. The Economy – Money, Multinationals and Misery
- 11. Culture: Coca-cola, Cartoons and Caricature
Buy America’s Backyard from Zed Books
Grace Livingstone 