Good neighbor diplomacy : United States policies in Latin America, 1933-1945 / Irwin F. Gellman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gellman, Irwin F., author.

Series:

Johns Hopkins University studies in historical and political science.

Johns Hopkins University studies in historical and political science

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States--Relations--Latin America.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (314 pages).

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Good Neighbor Diplomacy

Place of Publication:

Johns Hopkins University Press 2019

Baltimore ; London : Johns Hopkins University Press, [2019]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Originally published in 1979. American diplomacy during Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency has received much attention, with one notable exception—the United States' relations with Latin America. Irwin Gellman's book corrects this past neglect through a perceptive analysis of FDR's "Good Neighbor" efforts in Latin America. Based on a fresh examination of State Department records and extensive manuscript sources (including an unprecedented use of Nelson Rockefeller's oral history archives), the book points out the complexities of Good Neighbor diplomacy and its intimate relationship to Roosevelt's global strategies. As background to his discussions of FDR's policies, Gellman looks first at how Latin American affairs were handled during the administrations of Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover, the three Republicans who preceded Roosevelt in office. Good Neighbor diplomacy, Gellman shows, was not a carryover from these administrations; it bore the distinctive mark of FDR's own making. He then describes how Roosevelt's policy of nonintervention worked, particularly how military force was superseded by more subtle diplomatic maneuverings. Turning to a discussion of economic relations with Latin America, Gellman focuses on how the United States' own situation—cut off from international trade by the Depression—encouraged regional expansion. And, finally, he looks at how Roosevelt parlayed the threat of war in Europe and the specter of Nazi penetration in the Americas to further solidify a hemispheric stand. Gellman's account vividly demonstrates that Good Neighbor diplomacy was as much the product of personality as it was of policy. In particular, it emerged out of the rivalries and alliances among three men: Roosevelt; his Secretary of State, Cordell Hull; and Assistant Secretary of State, Sumner Welles. Gellman (the first to have access to FBI files on Welles) characterizes FDR as an astute politician who saw an opportunity to use pan-Americanism to restore America to world prominence—yet could not handle the personality conflicts among those in his own ranks. Gellman shows how tenuous a government policy can be when so much of it depends on personal control and influence.

Contents:

Cover

Copyright

Contents

Acknowledgments

Prologue

1. The Republican Prelude

2. The Democratic Transition

3. Nonintervention: Reality and Illusion

4. Depression Economics

5. Consolidation by the First Term's Finale

6. Neutrality with an Allied Bias

7. No Transfer

8. The Specter of Nazi Penetration

9. To War

10. Solidifying Inter-American Defenses

11. The Emergence of Cultural Cooperation

12. Wartime Economics

13. At and Over the Summit

14. The Disintegrating Alliance

15. The Region before the World

16. The Region and the World

Epilogue

Abbreviations Used in the Notes

Notes

Index.

Notes:

Description based on: online resource; title from PDF information screen (Project Muse, viewed December 23, 2022).

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

0-8018-2250-5

1-4214-3134-3

OCLC:

1117482333