| This study investigates the nature and impact of anti-U.S. sentiment in the Spanish Circum-Caribbean from 1958 to 1966. It defines anti-Americanism as mass-based protests directed against U.S. power abroad. It examines the roots of anti-Americanism and isolates variants in three case studies---the Cuban Revolution in 1959, the Panama riots in 1964, and the U.S. intervention in the Dominican Republic in 1965. It also investigates the U.S. response to each of these crises.; Multinational archival materials, interviews, periodicals, novels, and other sources demonstrate that the ambivalence of anti-U.S. criticism moderated its political effectiveness. Caribbean leaders were torn between strong positive and negative perceptions of the United States, and during crisis these perceptions inhibited their resolve and unity. Furthermore, Caribbean public opinion supported U.S. policies more than elites and revolutionaries said it did. Finally, Washington displayed a surprisingly coherent, consensual, and consistent ideological savvy in responding to foreign criticism, and the U.S. public was even more cocksure, hawkish, and nationalistic than its leaders. As a social and cultural sentiment, therefore, anti-Americanism was widespread and compelling, but as a political strategy it ran up not only against its own ambivalence but against the lack of ambivalence in U.S. counter-strategies.; Anti-Americanism is a major ideological construct that provides a framework for understanding early movements of resistance to U.S. global domination. It moves beyond Cold War themes like revolution and communism and integrates cultural analyses into traditional diplomatic stories. In short, this study of anti-Americanism highlights three relatively timeless and perhaps universal themes---its ambivalence, its variability, and U.S. resilience. |
