Why They Think Like Gringoes: The Discourse of U.S.-Latin American Relations

Abstract

As the American Century draws to a close, and the millennium approaches, it is remarkable to observe the extent to which historians and other observers of the U.S. relationship with Latin America have come to rest on perception, consciousness, and myth as key determinants in international relations. Gone along with the Cold War are rapacious profits, economic determinism, and the drive for security from Europe as prime explanations of American foreign policy. The end of the Communist menace appears to beg the question: If it doesn't have to, why does the United States persist in coercive, unilateral policies that so often seem based on gross distortions of reality? Perhaps the penchant for such policies transcends the economic or strategic explanation of the moment. These five books look at U.S. relations with Latin America from a wide variety of viewpoints. But they share some important similarities in their emphasis on what...