This volume documents the formulation of U.S. policy toward Latin America and the
Caribbean between 1969 and 1972. Upon taking office in January 1969, President Nixon
indicated that he intended to give a high priority to revitalizing relations with
the region. On his first full day as President, Nixon asked New York Governor Nelson
A. Rockefeller, a Latin America expert, to assess the effectiveness of the Alliance
for Progress program initiated by the Kennedy administration and to make policy
recommendations. Rockefeller’s report helped to shape Nixon’s October 31, 1969,
speech to the Inter-American Press Association, in which the President outlined his
vision for U.S.-Latin American relations. In that address, Nixon called for “a more
mature partnership” with the region. He offered to allow more multilateral input
into the process of allocating development aid, to reduce barriers to trade, to give
the management of relations with the nations of the Western Hemisphere a special
place within the U.S. bureaucracy by raising the Assistant Secretary of State for
Inter-American Affairs to the rank of Under Secretary, and to deal with Latin
American governments as they were, recognizing that “enormous, sometimes explosive
forces for change” in the region could result in instability and changes in
government.
The volume includes documentation on U.S. relations with Argentina, Brazil,
Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador,
Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama,
Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela. Coverage of El Salvador and Honduras is limited
to a chapter on the U.S. response to the 1969 “Soccer War,” which broke out
after violence erupted at a World Cup qualifying match between the two Central
American countries. An additional chapter on Bolivia will be added once it has
been fully cleared for publication. Documentation on U.S. relations with Chile
between 1969 and September 1973 will be published in a separate volume.