ࡱ> WYV` mbjbjb 'n|c|cR\8 8  8 ". . . . . . N P P P P P P ,RZ| . . . . . | N . . N N N . . . N N . N N N N u > N N 0 N 9N 9N N 8888 The Monroe Doctrine: A Responsibility to Protect Democracy By: James Morales In order to foster a newborn baby we must protect and nurture it for many years into the type of person we would like it to become. The United States took this idea and ran with it when they declared themselves as the defender of democracy and freedom in the Western Hemisphere. Due to the constant threat of communism in the infant countries in Latin America, the United States imposed what they thought was needed to be done in order for those countries to become more democratic instead of allowing for a more dictatorial government. During the 20th Century the United States have shown its unwillingness to live up to its responsibility as the protectorate of the fundamental rights and freedoms of Dominicans during the Dominican Republic Civil War, instead they acted on the threat of Communism and operated as a controller of this country because of this threat. The most dominating foreign policy adopted by the United States in history was the Monroe Doctrine, which was given by President James Monroe during his annual address to Congress in 1823 because of an increased desire to limit European influence in the Western Hemisphere. The reason for the initial announcement of the Monroe Doctrine was due to the fear of the Holy Alliance bringing their counterrevolution campaign to the newly independent Spanish colonies. Spain fell to revolution and was bailed out by the Holy Alliance; Austria, Prussia, and Russia, who were contemplating whether or not to take this campaign across seas to seize the Spanish colonies in Central and Southern America. This threat posed by European nations put the United States into an awkward position because the United States had only gained its own power after a revolution against Britain. Their reaction to this threat was the Monroe Doctrine, warning all European powers that America was no longer open to colonization, it was to support democracy, and that the United States would regard any colonization as an act of war. These main ideas became the backbone to our Latin American foreign policy and thus far have been successful in relations with Europe. The United States invoked the Monroe Doctrine many times from when it was first uttered to the end of the twentieth century. Still as important and useful as the Monroe Doctrine was, a draw back to it was that it could only be used against Europeans trying to re-colonize America, and because of this the United States didnt have the power to intervene due to internal conflicts in the Americas. This portion of the policy was Latin America's safety against the United States, the protection provided by the United States was needed by these countries but the United States also became an apparent danger because of its power and ability to act as they will in the Americas. Before the inauguration of President Theodore Roosevelt, Latin America was still under the control of Spain, which he wished to eliminate all together, and while in his presidency he achieved this goal and also greatly expanded the power of the president while establishing the United States as the guardian of the Western Hemisphere. He then changed the Monroe Doctrine to allow for the United States to become more imperialistic with the addition of the Roosevelt Corollary, a self-given right to exercise an international police power in order to protect the United States strategic interests of all sorts in Latin America. Foreign policy with Latin America again changed in 1933 when President Franklin Roosevelt pledged in his inaugural address that the United States would be a Good Neighbor, which came to be known as the Good Neighbor policy, it forbade intervention by one state in anothers affairs. This policy came about because of World War II being an up and coming war they would have to deal with and the United States needed for cooperation in Latin America for the security of the Western Hemisphere. The history of United States foreign policy has gone back and forth, many times, from intervention to the idea of staying out of the affairs of other countries because of many different events that changed our outlook on the different policies that they have observed. The Monroe Doctrine was amended as the stages were being set for a civil war in the Dominican Republic because of the Good Neighbor policy which ushered in the Trujillo regime, allowed for economic and political instability in Latin America, and brought about the new parties being formed in the Dominican Republic. A revolution was in dire need in the Dominican Republic because of the Good Neighbor policy allowing for a brutal dictator to rise to power and institute a reign of terror. Rafael Trujillo came to power as a result of the Good Neighbor Policy, even though the ambassador for the Dominican Republic at the time strongly warned Washington of the threat Trujillo posed when he made his ambition to rule the country clear after rising through the military to the rank of general. Still nothing was done due to the Good Neighbor policy keeping the United States out of the affairs of Latin America. With this the United States encountered its first test of the Monroe Doctrine in the Dominican Republic, which they then miserably failed when democracy was not upheld in the Western Hemisphere and the United States did nothing but watch as this brutal dictator came into the Dominican Republic and usurped power. Even outside of the Dominican Republic dictators were on the rise because of political and economic instability, which justified that intervention of some form was needed in Latin America. Before intervention the United States began to see corruption seep into all forms of government and the first signs of different types revolution if it were to stay out of Latin American affairs. This brought about a need for intervention, but in what ways the United States still needed to figure out. It was decided that the CIA wouldnt directly intervene but instead they allowed for military weaponry to be given to anti-Trujillo groups in order to assassinate Trujillo. On May 30, 1961 he was assassinated by a rivaling military group in Ciudad Trujillo, now Santo Domingo. After CIA intervention with Trujillo was allowed in the Dominican Republic, a new party system was formed that broke the people up into many different groups with the desire of a peaceful form of democracy with elections and bloodless transfers of power. This new system of government allowed for people to split politically, like in the United States, but that idea wasnt achieved because instead of fierce political battles, the parties took to the streets and fought more like gangs than parties running for power in the Dominican Republic. The political parties then began to form into two major party groups, the Constitutionalists and the Loyalists; a left wing, right wing political rivalry. In 1962 Juan Bosch became the first elected president in the Dominican Republic, this became a problem for the United States because through him all their fears for this country could come true. He led a left wing revolution but didnt prove to have the ability to take hold of the government like in the Communist model country in the Western Hemisphere, Fidel Castros Cuba. All these developments in the Dominican Republic contributed to the split in military and political power that fueled the civil war and led to military intervention by the United States in 1965. The Communist revolutions taking place around the world in places such as Vietnam, Korea, China, and Cuba after WWII became the main concern for national security. Communism was exactly the type of government the United States didnt want to see as a world power, but the leading communist country, the USSR rose to power and established a competition more than an actual war with the United States, The Cold War. The Cold War was a period of competition between the East and the West which came just short of a full-scale war fueled by hostile intention of alliances that the U.S. and USSR were part of. Also a battle of position became an aspect of this war, competition for the third world in Southern and Central America began to be a main priority for both of these superpowers. The USSR wished to spread Communism and their beliefs world-wide, while the United States had to fight this growing threat off in order to secure the Americas for Democracy. An arms race developed along with this fight for position, and so it became more about who would be the superpower in the world instead of spreading ideas around the world and allowing for different countries to form into the model of Democracy, or just the opposite, the model for Communism. In the Dominican Republic this began to become a growing fear of the United States because their government seemed to slip deeper and deeper into dictatorship with Trujillos 31-year rule. After his rule a new government was needed and if a person such as Juan Bosch could rally the country together and turn their economy around, the people would surly rally around him and support Communism because it is appealing to the common man. The main fear of Communism in the Western Hemisphere was only present because of the already successful Communism revolution in Cuba, which became a great concern for national security. Already the United States had seen attempts by the Soviet Union to gain the upper hand on them by trying to equip Cuba with Nuclear Weapons, but this attempt failed and is now known to be the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Cold War had successful made the jump to the third world and now the United States had to act on the different solutions they conceived to be the end of this Communism problem in the Western Hemisphere. The United States showed its unwillingness to uphold the Monroe Doctrine when allowing for a dictator to rise to power in the Dominican Republic in order for them to use him to control communism. While the United States government was observing the Good Neighbor policy, corruption began to seep into this unstable nation through the means of General Rafael Trujillo. He rose to the rank of general with not much opposition and did the same when he began to rule the country absolutely. Washington helped to bring this about by doing nothing to stop him from gaining the power that he did. The United States at the time being one of the two major superpowers made their obligation to the Dominican Republic seemed petty, but they understood that because of the successful Communist revolution in Cuba they would have to fight in order to keep the same from happening throughout the Americas. As a result of Trujillo, the military in the Dominican Republic became increasingly more powerful and began to dominate the government with sheer force of arms. The United States allowed for the Monroe Doctrine to be broken because at the time no one cared to even hear Latin American outcries because for U.S. officials, Trujillo had began to become a good investment for the United States, he made the country stabile and kept Communism from taking any form in the Dominican Republic. This non-intervention mind-state that allowed Trujillo to rise to power was almost absurd enough, but even after he gave a preview of his ruthlessness and brutality, the United States sponsored him and his government. Trujillo then began to receive military and economic aid from Washington to even further root his absolute rule over the Dominican Republic. Sponsoring this brutal dictator was like pouring salt in the wound, the United States turned its back to the Monroe Doctrine by allowing for this brutal dictator to come into power and then going one step further and sponsoring him. After Washington realized that Trujillo was out of control, the order was given to the CIA to overthrow his government by all means possible. The CIA came into contact with several wealthy conspirators plotting the assassination of Trujillo and handed over carbines to be used in the assassination. The United States once again called upon the CIA to violate the Monroe Doctrine by indirectly intervening in the relations of other American countries and supplying certain groups with weapons. The United States defeated the point of the Monroe Doctrine, that the western hemisphere would be democratic in nature, but to allow a dictator showed that they would go by any means possible to keep communism out. After the oust of Trujillo, the Dominicans failed to bring any political stability to the country which shook Washington because of the always hidden threat of communism and so the United States had to decide whether to intervene, but during the meetings that were held for reaching a decision our own government began to show signs of corruption. The Johnson Administration decided before going public with their decision that they would rally support for invasion by telling our citizens that we would intervene on the grounds of saving American lives. This provided for a safe front that Johnson could work behind while in the Dominican Republic, but it only worked for a short period of time. Although this corruption doesnt violate the Monroe Doctrine directly its exemplifies how even the leader of our country could show corruption and try to work his way around the Monroe Doctrine in order to invade. Johnson disregarded the newest policy set into place, the Good Neighbor policy, and cited the imperialistic side of the Monroe Doctrine, the Roosevelt Corollary. The need to invade was evident but for centuries the Monroe Doctrine said to stay out of Latin American affairs, but Johnson skipped to the Roosevelt Corollary in order to finish what he thought needed to be done in the Dominican Republic to gain some stability. The main purpose of the Roosevelt Corollary was to provide a backdoor to the Monroe Doctrine and allow for intervention at almost anytime, if the reasons were sufficient, which in turn broke one of the aspects of the doctrine. In Congress, a voice began to cry out against Johnsons imperialist ideas in Latin America and called for Wilsons idea of self-determination, the thought that anyone who will endorse their own actions will determine where they end up because they willingly made those actions that led them to their present place. Americans now saw that our noble office of the presidency can be filled with corruption and injustice at times, and they decided to fight back and preach for Wilsons idea of self-determination in Congress. This led to the formation of groups whose purpose was to fight Johnsons ideas and try to make it hard for him to pass what he wanted to be done through Legislation. The decision to intervene in the Dominican Republic Civil War showed the voting population of the United States that our government had some of the same types of corruption that we are trying to get rid of in Latin America. When the Dominican uprising took form into a civil war built of small clashes, the United States was quick to come in and use deception and fear to keep this democratic experiment from going under. Intervention in any American state because of internal conflicts is a direct violation of the Monroe Doctrine, which in turn made the United States take on a more imperialistic aspect. The United States was starting to look more and more imperialistic and it became harder for our government to preach anti-imperialism around the world while our troops remained in the Dominican Republic. We directly violated the Monroe Doctrine and intervened in the Dominican Republic, which greatly reduced the rights, and freedoms we guaranteed to American countries when the doctrine was first announced. Before the war the United States was impartial to what happened in the Dominican Republic, but at the same time they were conducting covert CIA missions to infiltrate the island. This allowed for another aspect of deception in the United States to come to the surface, covert missions, the CIA ran deep cover operations in Dominican factions in order to infiltrate the island, all the while keeping them a secret from everyone who didnt need have the knowledge of them. The responsibility to protect Dominicans was upheld for certain parties in the country, but most left wing political groups were attacked by the United States during this invasion. Fear was another tactic used against revolutionaries in order to promote stability, the fear that twenty thousand men could just uproot your government at anytime, like in the Dominican Republic, became an unsettling consequence for revolution. All around Latin America the rifle fire of this invasion was being heard, the United States power over this region became a death-grip because the governments of Latin America could not even comprehend fighting a force such as the United States. Instead of being a Good Neighbor or observing the Monroe Doctrine and just keeping a protector status with these nations, the United States invaded in order to force out certain groups that were going in the direction of totalitarianism, and dictatorships, which, in the eyes of the United States, would allow for Communism to find its way into the Americas. The Dominican Republic civil war is a fine example of how the United States broke their responsibilities in order to take control of the region and become arguably more imperialistic. The United States became the dominating regime in the Dominican Republic during the civil war even though they werent the controlling body of the country; they achieved this through the CIA and Special Forces. After United States intervention they declared themselves to be neutral, but in reality their entire operation became an anti-communist, anti-Bosch campaign. Intervention was always said to be neutral, which was the case many times during this civil war, but at the same time everyone could see that it was really an extension of the Cold War to the Americas and trying to rid the American continents of communists. This limited the Dominicans right to know which side was to win the civil war, because by then the United States had stopped the war and could have just decided which side would be declared the winner and allowed to run the government. Another tactic used by the United States was to infiltrate left wing political groups, and support and fund democratic organizations in order to weed out communism. Many CIA agents were conducting covert missions in the various left wing political organizations, in order to be able to see what they were going to do in certain situations before they had the chance to act on it. This is one way they protected the rights of democracy and not communism asserted by the Monroe Doctrine, but still in a democratic country communists are allowed to have a party, so this act could be seen as counterproductive to protecting Dominican rights and democracy. Most of the problems in the Dominican Republic that were brought to the media to be given to the world were of little or no importance to this civil war, but merely the United States government trying to gather support and try to turn them into international communist conspiracies. This form of propaganda helped for Johnson to proceed to do as he willed in this country after intervention. Allowing for the use of propaganda allows for some similarities to the communists that we were trying to fight; it also limits our freedoms because it shows the government trying to tell the people how to make decisions instead of letting them make the decision for themselves. The United States did all possible to uphold one portion of the Monroe Doctrine, that democracy would flow in the Western Hemisphere, but they did this at the cost of all the other aspects. The constant United States intervention in this region has led to more injustice and uprisings, and also a sense of distrust for the United States throughout Latin America. In 1971 the Wall Street Journal published that the United States military had involvement in the many death squads that arose as a result to intervention in 1965. The death squads came into being because of political factions trying to usurp power because of the instability. This was a result of not protecting the freedoms of these citizens because the United States was supposed to have a hand in the organization of these groups. In one year it was recorded that one hundred and eighty six political leaders were assassinated and another thirty disappeared, which was attributed to the United States pulling forces out of the country after some stability was reached. When Washington became confident that the Dominicans could run their newly established democracy alone they pulled out which gave many revolutionaries the idea of taking leadership back like in the brutal days of Trujillo. Due to the Marines being pulled out these same revolutionaries had been given the green light to proceed with their plans of domination of the Dominican Republic. The rise of death squads and political assassinations made fear of these groups a common emotion felt among Dominicans, but along with this emotion came an even greater fear, the fear of the United States. As a result of everything that came after intervention, Latin countries began to have an anti-United States sentiment because of their allowance of all the atrocities before, during, and after the war. This was a result of breaking the Monroe Doctrine because it made Washington look like an imperialistic force to many Latin countries. The result of intervention in 1965 was a heightened sense of corruption and instability, which the United States ushered in because of their own agenda needing to be fulfilled. In the Dominican Republic The United States failed to fill its position as the protectorate nation to Pan-American rights and freedoms. Instead of protecting the Dominicans, they invaded and intervened in an internal conflict and broke the main points of the Monroe Doctrine. Every action taken during the United States intervention was to accomplish their own agenda of fighting to keep Communism out of Latin America instead of the greater picture, shaping this country to become more democratic. The last of the United States faults were the reports that communism was flourishing in this country which became the main support behind this invasion. There was no real threat of communism present in the Dominican Republic and all of the United States excuses for intervention are not liable reasons to break the single most significant foreign policy in Latin American-United States relations history, the Monroe Doctrine. Work Cited Chester, Eric Thomas. Rag-Tags, Scum, Riff-Raff, and Commies: The U.S. Intervention in the Dominican Republic, 1965-66. New York, NY, NY: Monthly Review Press, 2001. Chomsky,Noam,andEdward S.Herman.The Dominican Republic:US Model for Third World Development. South End Press,1979. Gomez, Salvador E., The U.S. Invasion of the Dominican Republic: 1965. University of Pittsburg, 2005. http://fuentes.csh.udg.mx/CUCSH/Sincronia/dominican.html (Tuesday June 21, 2005) May, Ernest R., Monroe Doctrine. Encyclopedia Americana. Grolier Online, 2005. http://go.grolier.com/ (Monday, June 20, 2005) Shrock ,Randall PH.D.."Monroe Doctrine."Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2005.2005.Microsoft Corporation.Monday, June 20, 2005. "Dominican Republic."Info Please.2005.Pearson Education Inc.July 7, 2005. 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