05 - Globalisation of the Cold War - The Cuban Missile Crisis

Hwa Chong Institution (College) Paper 1 Theme I: Understanding the Cold War, 1945 -1991 How was the global Cold War fought? 1 EXTENSION OF THE COLD WAR OUTSIDE EUROPE (THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS) _______________________________________________________________________________________________ The Cuban Missile Crisis1  In Fidel Castro, Khrushchev found a worthy heir of the Bolshevik revolutionary tradition and an example for the rest of the “third world”. Mao had never shown Kh rushchev the deference he had accorded Stalin, and was on his way to becoming an annoying - even dangerous – critic. Ho Chi Minh had an uncompleted civil war on his hands because of the settlement forced upon him in 1954, and was in no position to export revolution outside of Indochina. Nasser of Egypt had never seriously considered becoming a Marxist- Leninist and preferred keeping Egyptian communists lo cked up. Castro’s victory and subsequent turn to Moscow presented an unexpected opportunity, not unlike the one Mao had offered Stalin a decade earlier. Khrushchev’s hopes for Latin America quickly swelled to match those of his predecessor for China. 2 A Case for the Monroe Doctrine  Since the days of President James Monroe 3, the United States had regarded the Caribbean as its own backyard, a source of trade and wealth and its own security zone and dominated Latin America economically and militarily: it understood the advantages of hemispheric hegemony long before it began to think about global hegemony.4 One of the first manifestations of this doctrine was the conclusion of the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance, signed in September 1947 in Rio de Janeiro (hence the colloquial name "Rio 1 The Cuban Missile Crisis which lasted from 16-28 October 1962 is often considered the closest the Cold War came to escalating into a full-scale nuclear war. Len Scott and R. Gerald Hughes (ed.) The Cuban Missile Crisis: A Critical Reappraisal, p. 17. 2 John Lewis Gaddis, We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History, pp. 176-177. 3 James Monroe (1758-1831) was the fifth President of the United States (1817-1825). The Monroe Doct rine was introduced in 1823 and stated that further efforts by European nations to take control of any independent state in North or South America would be viewed as "the manifest ation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States." At the same time, the doctrine noted that the United States recognise and not interfere with existing European colonies nor meddle in the internal concerns of European countries. At this point in time, nearly all Latin American colonies of Spain and Portugal had achieved or were at the point of gaining independence from the Portuguese and Spanish Empires. 4 Gaddis, We Now Know, p. 177.

Hwa Chong Institution (College) Paper 1 Theme I: Understanding the Cold War, 1945 -1991 How was the global Cold War fought? 2 Treaty"). At the Ninth International Conference of American States was held in Bogotá, Colombia between March and May 1948 and led by United States Secretary of State George Marshall, members pledged to fight communism in the western hemisphere. This gave birt h to the Organization of American States (OAS). Communist parties existed but were mostly mouthpieces for disaffected intellectuals. There was hardly any industrial proletariat, and the Catholic Church retained the peasantry’s overwhelming allegiance. Comintern efforts had fallen victim to the same ignorance of local conditions that had defeated them elsewhere. Due to the distances involved, attempts to promote trade, even to arrange diplomatic contacts with the USSR, had languished.5  Communism to the south concerned officials in Washin gton but less than one might have expected. The Federal Bureau of Investigation had handled intelligence operations in Latin America during World War II and continued to report on communist activities there. In April 1948, Secretary of State Marshall found himself besieged in Bogota, because of riots widely blamed on the Communists during the founding meeting of the Organisation of American States. Kennan toured Latin America early in 1950 and returned with a pessimistic assessment that repression may be the only answer . Acheson suppressed his report and it had no influence on US policy in the region.6  In Guatemala, a military officer, Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán, was elected its president in March 1951. While not a Communist, he had been elected with the support of several left-wing parties. As part of his modernisation programme, the Árbenz administration introduced a policy of land reform. One of its measures involved the nationalisation of 400 000 acres of uncultivated land belonging to the largest American enterprise in Central America, the United Fruit Company 7, whose banana plantations were at the core of the Guatemalan economy. These lands were redistributed to landless peasants.  Washington did not act chiefly to protect the interest of United Fruit Company, substantial as they were. Although Árbenz was not a Communist, he relied heavily on support from the Guatemalan Communist Party and was very much under its influence. He and his supp orters instituted the most successful land reform programme seen in Latin American up to that time. Despite warnings from Dulles about long existent Russian ambitions in the western he misphere, the Soviet Union did litt le to encourage Árbenz. Direct contacts appear to be limited to a visit by a Soviet diplomat interested in bartering agricultural equipment for bananas, a deal that fell through when each side realised the other had no refrigerated ships and that bananas could only travel under the auspices of the United Fruit Company. 8  These developments led the United Fruit Company to begin an intensive lobbying campaign against Árbenz in the United States. This was done particularly through Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, who had close ties to the company. 9 The company had begun a public relation s campaign to discredit the Guatemalan government; overall, the company spent over a half -million dollars to influence both lawmakers and members of the American public that the Guatemalan government of Jacobo Árbenz needed to be overthrown. President Eisenhower approved a secret plan to depose Árbenz. However, under the charter of the Organization of American States (OAS), no member could interfere in the internal politics of another. While publicly espousing this doctrine, Washington authorised the CIA to train and supply a band of Guatemalan political exiles on United Fruit property in neighbouring Honduras. These were to be led by an ardent anti-Communist exile, Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas.10 5 Ibid.. 6 Ibid.. 7 The United Fruit Company was fo rmed in 1899 and had extensive landholdings and ra ilroads in Central America. By 1930, it was a lready Guatemala’s largest landowner and employer. 8 Gaddis, We Now Know, p. 178. 9 John Foster Dulles had been a senior partner in a law firm associated with the United Fruit Company. His brother, Allen Dulles , the head of the CIA, had been on its board of trustees. 10 Ibid., p. 204.

Hwa Chong Institution (College) Paper 1 Theme I: Understanding the Cold War, 1945 -1991 How was the global Cold War fought? 3  In May 1954, a Polish ship carrying supplies of smal l arms and ammunition docked in Guatemala; the first time a Latin American state had bought arms from the Eastern bloc. This was seen by Eisenhower as the last straw. In June, the rebels under Armas crossed into Guatemala. While they initially made little headway, Árbenz had overestimated his military’s loyalty. Subjected to a radio propaganda campaign inspired by the CIA, the officer corps defected to Armas and Árbenz fled into exile. A new military ju