Democrats and dictators: The United States republican mission in Latin America, 1936--1949

Most scholars of United States-Latin American relations accept that the United States goal in the hemisphere was economic hegemony. Some have even suggested that, in pursuit of this goal, the United States favored dictators, because dictators brought stability to the region and allowed for more effective penetration of United States capital. This study challenges the view that the United States favored dictators in Latin America.; During the 1930s and 1940s a debate raged in the State Department over how the United States should promote representative democracy in Latin America. Some officials advocated for immediate pressure to be placed on the dictators to step down in favor of fair and free elections. These officials saw no other way to have democracy, other than "to have it." Other State Department officials argued that the United States should avoid interference in the internal affairs of Latin Americans. They insisted that democracy could not be imposed, but must develop internally. These officials wanted Washington to tolerate "dictators and disreputable governments," while trying to prepare Latin American countries for republican government through the use of cultural exchange, economic development, and social development programs.; This debate was not about whether the United States should support republican government or accept dictatorship, but how best to promote representative democracy. At no time during the 1930s and 1940s did the State Department prefer dictatorship to the development of representative democracy in Latin America. This study does not argue that the promotion of republican government in the hemisphere was the primary goal of the United States, nor does it argue that the United States was uninterested in economic hegemony. The United States wanted to control economic development, but the research proves that United States officials were not satisfied with this. They also wanted to remake Latin America in its own image politically and thus had a republican mission.