Title: America’s Dirty Wars: Latin America in the 1970s | American Empire
Headings: America’s Dirty Wars: Latin America in the 1970s
America’s Dirty Wars: Latin America in the 1970s
Introduction
United States Involvement in Latin America Prior to the Cold War
Latin America and the Cold War
US Government Foreign Policy
The Alliance for Progress
US Involvement in Chile Prior to 1970
Allende Wins the Election
The Assassination of General René Schneider
US Relations with Allende’s Chile
US Business Interest in Chile
The Fall of Allende and the 1973 Coup
Post navigation

Content: Latin America and the Cold War
Latin America became a priority again in the 1950s due to the Cold War. The Cold War was a conflict between the US and the Soviet Union. After World War II, the US and the Soviet Union were the two major superpowers left. They both wanted a sphere of influence in the world. The US believed that their influence should continue to include Latin America. Ideological differences also played a role. The US was a capitalist country and the Soviet Union was a communist country. The world was trying to determine which system would prove to be the dominant ideology. The US determined that containing c ommunism would be in the best interest of their national security. The policy of Containment was initially focused around the Soviet Bloc and Asia.