Table of Contents

Acknowledgements 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 Postscript Appendix Notes Index

Promotional Information

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. This book shows how George W Bush's administration used the War on Terror as a pretext for intervention.

About the Author

Grace Livingstone is a journalist specialising in Latin American affairs. She was a reporter for The Guardian in Venezuela and has also worked for the BBC World Service and written for The Observer, The New Statesman and The Tablet. She is the author of Inside Colombia: Drugs Democracy and War (Latin America Bureau, 2003).

Reviews

"Grace Livingstone's admirable study shows why US policy towards Latin America needs to change both urgently and substantially. 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, professor of Latin American politics, former director of the Institute of the Americas, 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, journalist and broadcaster, author of 'Pinochet: the politics of torture'