U.S. Policy Toward Venezuela During The Truman Administration

Venezuela, which is an important country that holds strategic position and resources in South America, plays a vital role to the global strategies of the United States.The Cold War between the USSR and the U.S. opened the curtain during the Truman administration. The United States began to establish her own political, economic, military blocs in order to cotain the spread of communism in the world. For U.S.,Latin America has always been considered to be her traditional sphere of influence and not been meddled by others, so controling Latin America becomes the first step of making global strategies of the United States. In this backgroud, the U.S. policy toward Venezuela was made officially. Policies on Venezuela made by the U.S. at that time concerned the contest between the USSR and U.S., the relationships adjustment between the United States and Latin Americans,the United States himself national interests and so on. This paper takes them as an entry point, taking historical materialism viewpoint as the guiding principle, using U.S. government's the newest diplomatic declassified document, attempts to analyze the contents, characteristics and influence of U.S. policy toward Venezuela in the early cold war.This Thesis includes three parts:the introduction,the content,the conclusion.The introduction: this part mainly aims to present the meanings,the foundations, the literature review and the materials which were used in this paper.The content: Firstly, the author introduces the historical background of the U.S. policy toward Venezuela. In the late 19th and the early 20th, oil was founded in Venezuela, since then the U.S. began to penetrated into Venezuela, and rob crazily the oil of Venezuela. During the World War II, the Good Neighbor policy made a great success in Venezuela,making the U.S. influence infiltrate into Venezuela further and enlarge its effects at Venezuela.Secondly, The policy of Truman administration toward Venezuela is the body part of this thesis. Firstly, the author explains the policy at the first term of Truman administration, including the U.S. policy with respect to the Law of excess profits tax which Venezuela government newly enacted; U.S. policy toward Venezuela's arm sale; the attitude of the U.S. toward the coup in Venezuela. Secondly, the author describes the U.S. policy toward Venezuela during the second term of the Truman administration, mainly including the course, result and the impact of the new Trade Agreement between U.S. and Venezuela; the plan of mutual defense in west hemisphere between U.S. and Venezuela; U.S. assessment of the development in Venezuela in the early 1950s.In the part of conclusion, the author analyzes the character and the impact of the U.S. policy toward Venezuela. The author thinks that, in the Cold War background, getting the strategic resources of Venezuela is the starting point that US made all the policies toward Venezuela, ensuring the national interests of the United States is the purpose. Eventually, Venezuela became one of the most loyal allies of U.S. in Americas.