Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- 1 The U.S. imperial state: theory and historical setting
- 2 The United States in Cuba 1952–1958: policymaking and capitalist interests
- 3 The United States in Cuba 1959–1961: national-social revolution, state transformation, and the limits of imperial power
- 4 The United States against Cuba 1961-1968: politics of confrontation in Latin America
- 5 The United States against Cuba 1961–1968: politics of global economic blockade
- 6 The United States against Cuba 1968–1980: intransigent policymaking and its consequences
- 7 The U.S. imperial state: some final insights
- Epilogue. The Reagan administration and Cuba: the revival of vendetta politics 1981–1986
- Appendix 1 The impact and effectiveness of the U.S. global economic blockade on Cuban development
- Appendix 2 Tables
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
4 - The United States against Cuba 1961-1968: politics of confrontation in Latin America
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 May 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- 1 The U.S. imperial state: theory and historical setting
- 2 The United States in Cuba 1952–1958: policymaking and capitalist interests
- 3 The United States in Cuba 1959–1961: national-social revolution, state transformation, and the limits of imperial power
- 4 The United States against Cuba 1961-1968: politics of confrontation in Latin America
- 5 The United States against Cuba 1961–1968: politics of global economic blockade
- 6 The United States against Cuba 1968–1980: intransigent policymaking and its consequences
- 7 The U.S. imperial state: some final insights
- Epilogue. The Reagan administration and Cuba: the revival of vendetta politics 1981–1986
- Appendix 1 The impact and effectiveness of the U.S. global economic blockade on Cuban development
- Appendix 2 Tables
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The Alliance for Progress
According to us, relations between Cuba and the United States may currently be compared to an automobile and a train traveling more or less at the same speed. But the automobile has to cross over the railroad track; and as the train and the automobile approach the level crossing, the possibilities of confrontation and collision increase. If the automobile – that is, Cuba – reaches the level crossing before the train (that is, if the Latin American revolution reaches a certain state) … Cuba loses its importance. In fact, Cuba is not being attacked by imperialism out of spite; it is being attacked because of its significance.
Ernesto Guevara (1964)The Cuban Revolution profoundly influenced U.S.-Latin American policy during the 1960s. Raising the twin issues of control over national resources and alternative, noncapitalist paths to development, it forced Washington to reformulate hemispheric strategies. Apprehensive lest the socialist experiment in Cuba heighten historic conflicts between the United States and its traditional sphere of influence, executive-branch policymakers settled on the Alliance for Progress to contain the influence of the Cuban Revolution and maintain U.S. regional hegemony. The Alliance for Progress, State Department official Chester Bowles observed, “in large measure grew out of the Cuban situation.”
Some policymakers envisioned the Alliance primarily as enlarging the scope of U.S. economic activity in Latin America and extending Wilsonian liberalism to the Third World. And many saw no contradiction between the Alliance's proclamation of democratic ideals and their own advocacy of intervention and counterrevolution.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Imperial State and RevolutionThe United States and Cuba, 1952–1986, pp. 131 - 177Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1988