| Immediately after World War II, the leaders of the United States and Mexico set ambitious goals for their respective countries. Those of the United States took up the reconstruction of the world, in accord with American economic, security, and political ideals. Those of Mexico redoubled their efforts to create a modern, industrial economy. U.S. representatives to Mexico tried to direct Mexican development, but Mexican officials and the Mexican public typically bent U.S. efforts---loans, pacts, investment, aid---to fit Mexican ideals and ends. Despite American attempts to foster free enterprise in Mexico, American diplomats actually helped the Mexicans construct a state-led economy, just as Mexican leaders preferred. Mexican initiative and the U.S. desire for both a prosperous trade partner and a stable neighbor in the intensifying Cold War partially offset U.S. advantages of wealth and power.; While recent examinations of U.S.-Latin American relations of the postwar period tend to stress Americanization of partners, this study of Mexico more often finds Mexicanization of U.S. exertions. In contrast to the crisis-driven studies that make up much of the literature of Cold War diplomacy, the work addresses the day-to-day process of U.S.-Mexican relations during a little studied period, 1945--1952. It therefore offers the current student or policymaker valuable insight into the possibilities and limits of present-day international relations. Its main sources are Department of State files, Mexican presidential archives, and journals of both nations. From these, it constructs a history and analysis not only of leaders' aims and acts, but also of the influence that interested publics---labor leaders, corporate managers and investors, and victims of disaster---exercised over national choices. |
