Rivalry and Alliance Politics in Cold War Latin America

298 Pages·2014·2.77 MB·English

by  Christopher Darnton

Rivalry and Alliance Politics in
Cold War Latin America
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Rivalry and Alliance Politics in
Cold War Latin America
CHRISTOPHER DARNTON
Johns Hopkins University Press
Baltimore
© 2014 Johns Hopkins University Press
All rights reserved. Published 2014
Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Darnton, Christopher Neil, 1980–
Rivalry and alliance politics in cold war Latin America / Christopher Darnton.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4214-1361-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-1-4214-1362-4
(electronic)—ISBN 1-4214-1361-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)—ISBN 1-4214-1362-0
(electronic) 1. Latin America—Foreign relations—20th century.
2. Cold War—Political aspects—Latin America. 3. Latin America—
Politics and government—1948–1980. 4. Latin America—Politics and
government—1980– I. Title.
F1415.D334 2014
980.03—dc23 2013036554
A cata log record for this book is available from the British Library.
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contents
Ac know ledg ments vii
1 Explaining Rivalry and Rapprochement
in Cold War Latin America 1
2 Parochial Interest and Policy Change 26
3 Antagonism and Anti- Communism in Argentine- Brazilian
Relations 51
Perón and Dutra, 1947: Damn the Torpedoes 59
Frondizi and Quadros, 1961: The Spirit of Uruguaiana 68
Lanusse and Médici, 1972: General to General 80
Videla and Figueiredo, 1980: The Turning Point 91
4 The 1959 Cuban Revolution and Central American Rivalries 110
From Borders to Brotherhood: Nicaragua and Honduras 120
Per sis tent Confl icts: Costa Rica– Nicaragua and El Salvador– Honduras 129
5 The 1980s Debt Crisis and Andean Rivalries 140
Per sis tent Confl icts: Peru- Ecuador, Colombia- Venezuela, and Bolivia- Chile 142
From Crisis to Cooperation: Argentina and Chile 149
6 From the Cold War to the Global War on Terrorism 167
Algeria and Morocco: Protracted Rivalry in the Maghreb 180
7 The Or gan i za tion al Politics of Confl ict Resolution 191
Notes 209
Index 277
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ac know ledg ments
This book began a de cade ago in a directed reading course with Paul Sigmund
on Latin American international relations, an intellectually intense experience
that re oriented my thinking in several ways. My background had been in US
foreign policy toward Latin America, but I began to explore a larger terrain of
regional interactions. My native Californian focus on Mexico and the Ca rib be an
Basin shifted to account for South America. And my readings in international
relations theory and regional diplomatic history often seemed irreconcilable.
One puzzle in par tic u lar transfi xed me: What caused the transition in Argentine-
Brazilian relations from centuries of rivalry to the Mercosur era, why did this
change happen when it did, and to what extent do these dynamics and their pol-
icy lessons apply to other protracted confl icts within and beyond Latin America?
That course came midway between two mentorships that profoundly shaped
my approach to international politics. Among the many lessons I drew from
Abraham Lowenthal at the University of Southern California and Andrew
Moravcsik at Prince ton are these: to understand what transpires between states,
look within them, and to explain what drives organizations and individuals,
think hard about interests. To both advisors I am indebted for motivation both
by example and by expectation to pose, investigate, and prepare for diffi cult
questions, to bring theory and evidence to bear on signifi cant international
problems, and to get swiftly to the point.
Over the last several years I have benefi ted from the instruction and inspi-
ration of many teachers. I thank David Andrus, Nancy Bermeo, John Borne-
man, Christina Davis, Richard Dekmejian, Kent Eaton, Mark Fischle, Joanne
Gowa, Jeff rey Herbst, Robert Hutchings, Norman Itzkowitz, Dominic D. P.
Johnson, Robert Keohane, Atul Kohli, Steve Lamy, Evan Lieberman, Abraham
Lowenthal, Dan Lynch, Kathleen McNamara, John Odell, Michael O’Hanlon,
Kristopher Ramsay, William Rosenau, Anne Sartori, Paul Sigmund, Deborah
viii Ac know ledg ments
Yashar, the faculty of the 2006 Institute for Qualitative Research Methods, the
staff of Prince ton’s McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning, and above all
my dissertation advisors, Andrew Moravcsik, Tom Christensen, Jeremy Adel-
man, and Jason Lyall.
For comments on parts of what became this book, I thank Jeremy Adelman,
Nora Bensahel, Tom Christensen, Jason Davidson, Matt Green, Ron Hassner,
Evan Lieberman, Dan Lindley, Abraham Lowenthal, Jason Lyall, Ana Margheri-
tis, Sean McEnroe, Jon Mercer, Andrew Moravcsik, Karl Mueller, Rebecca Szper,
Wallace Thies, the anonymous reviewers of the book manuscript and the articles
in Security Studies and Latin American Research Review that came out of it (ver-
sions of chapter four and of one section of chapter three, respectively), and the
participants at numerous conference panels, talks, and workshops. I especially
thank my editor, Suzanne Flinchbaugh, for her astute suggestions and unstint-
ing support.
For hiring me and supporting my work, thanks go to my chairs and deans,
Darius Rejali and Peter Steinberger at Reed College, and particularly Phil Hen-
derson and Larry Poos at Catholic University. For intellectual havens and wel-
comes in new places, I thank Carlos Escudé, Ivonne Jeannot Laens, Gustavo
Lamouret, and Diana Mondino in Buenos Aires; Jon Mercer and Beth Kier in
Seattle; and Tom Cohen, Mario Ortiz, and Enrique Pumar in Washington. Re-
search funding came from the CUA School of Arts and Sciences and Politics
Department as well as the Prince ton Institute for International and Regional
Studies, Program in Latin American Studies, Bobst Center for Peace and Jus-
tice, and Department of Politics.
For documents, assistance, and patience, I thank the librarians at Catholic
University and the Washington Libraries Research Consortium, Prince ton Uni-
versity, the University of Washington, Reed College, the Universidad del CEMA,
the Fundação Getúlio Vargas (Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo), and the Universi-
dade Nacional de Brasília as well as Argentina’s Biblioteca Nacional and Biblio-
teca del Congreso. I am particularly grateful to the dedicated staff of the US Li-
brary of Congress (Hispanic Division and Law Library), the Archivo Histórico
de la Cancillería Argentina, and the Arquivo Histórico do Itamaraty (Brasília).
During graduate school and on the tenure track, I have deeply appreciated
the comradeship of Will Barndt, Pam Bromley, Sarah Chartock, Ian Chong, Leo
Coleman, Andrew Erickson, Jennifer Fleeger, Matt Green, Jaime Kirzner-
Roberts, Elizabeth Kittrell, Mareike Kleine, Philip Lipscy, Austin Long, Sean
McEnroe, Valeria Palanza, Alex Russo, Min Ye, Andrew Yeo, and Rafi Youatt.
And in part because Latin American international relations can feel at times
Ac know ledg ments ix
like a scholarly no- man’s-land, I have greatly appreciated conversations with fel-
low travelers Mariano Bertucci, Miguel Centeno, Tom Long, Robert Pastor, João
Resende- Santos, Michael Shifter, Arturo Sotomayor, and the foreign policy ex-
perts and practitioners who granted me interviews in Argentina and Brazil.
Ultimately this book is for my family: my parents, who encouraged me to
read and write; my grandfather, with whom I wish I could have shared this
book; and especially my wife, Jessica, who has sustained me all along, and our
son Henry, who arrived four days after I completed the manuscript and who
celebrated his fi rst birthday on the day I wrote this text. Ac know ledg ments are
not enough.