The regional context

United States policy in Latin America between 1945 and 1958 was based upon what David Green called the principle of “a closed hemisphere in an Open World” Washington's desire for political dominance over the region led it both to oppose the intrusion of fascism and other ideologies and to respond antagonistically to governments promoting independent foreign policies and development programs that constrained foreign capital. The American objective was expressed by deepening the region's dependence in the areas of trade, finance, and investment on U.S. public agencies, multinational corporations, and export-importers, and via agreements wrested from regimes for the production and transfer to the United States of certain “raw and semi-processed materials.” The major aim of U.S. participation in the Chapultepec conference in February 1945, which ostensibly gathered to discuss inter-American economic relationships, was to oppose Peronist nationalism. Accordingly, the American delegation resisted tariff protection, supported increased foreign capital participation in local enterprises, and denounced economic nationalism and the emergence of statist regimes.

The rationale for extending the “closed hemisphere” concept to cover military relations was outlined cogently by U.S. Secretary of War Robert Patterson in a statement supporting congressional passage of the Inter-American Military Cooperation Act in 1947: