"But as critical as the domestic situation was, Roosevelt understood the US, and all other countries, needed to restore international trade while avoiding war. So, he included the following resonant observation: In the field of world policy I would dedicate this Nation to the policy of the good neighbor-the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others-the neighbor who respects his obligations and respects the sanctity of his agreements in and with a world of neighbors."
"The Republicans of the 1920s had been isolationists with regard to Europe and much of the world, but in Latin America, they were enthusiastic imperialists. The US occupied Nicaragua between 1912 and 1933 in order to hold the land for a second cross-isthmus canal, an occupation which spawned a brutal six-year war with insurgents between 1927 and 1933. In Haiti, the story was similar. So, too, the Dominican Republic. There were also briefer invasions and occupations of Panama and Honduras."
Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered his first inaugural address in March 1933 amid the Great Depression and sought to calm a terrified nation with the line "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." He prioritized restoring international trade while avoiding war and proclaimed a Good Neighbor Policy dedicated to respecting other nations, obligations, and the sanctity of agreements. The Good Neighbor concept drew from Herbert Hoover. Republican policy in the 1920s combined European isolationism with imperial interventions in Latin America, including prolonged occupations of Nicaragua, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic and shorter actions in Panama and Honduras. American corporations like the United Fruit Company and corrupt local elites favored intervention, while ordinary Latin Americans resisted and leaders such as Augusto César Sandino emerged as regional folk heroes. Hoover judged the occupations a foolish waste of resources.
Read at The Walrus
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]