The Good Neighbor policy (; ) was the foreign policy of the administration of United States president Franklin D. Roosevelt towards Latin America. The policy's main principle was that of non-intervention and non-interference in the domestic affairs of Latin America. It also reinforced the idea that the United States would be a "good neighbor" and engage in reciprocal exchanges with Latin American countries. Overall, the Roosevelt administration expected that this new policy would create new economic opportunities in the form of reciprocal trade agreements and reassert the influence of the United States in Latin America; however, many Latin American governments were not convinced.
Although the policy was implemented by the Roosevelt administration, President Woodrow Wilson had previously used the term, but subsequently went on to justify U.S. involvement in the Mexican Revolution and occupation of Haiti. Senator Henry Clay had coined the term Good Neighbor in the previous century. President Herbert Hoover turned against interventionism and developed policies that Roosevelt continued.
Background In the early 20th century, the United States periodically intervened militarily in Latin American nations to protect its interests, particularly the commercial interests of the US business community. After the Roosevelt Corollary of 1904, whenever the United States felt its debts were not being repaid in a prompt fashion, its citizens' business interests were being threatened, or its access to natural resources was being impeded, military intervention or threats were often used to coerce the respective government into compliance. This made many Latin Americans wary of U.S. presence in their region and subsequently hostility grew towards the United States.
President Wilson landed U.S. troops in Mexico in 1914, in Haiti in 1915, in the Dominican Republic in 1916, in Mexico a second time in 1916, and in Mexico several additional times before Wilson left office, in Cuba in 1917, and in Panama in 1918. Also, for most of the Wilson administration, the U.S. military occupied Nicaragua, installed a Nicaraguan president that the U.S. preferred, and ensured that the country signed treaties favorable to the U.S.James W. Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me (New York: The New Press, 2018), p. 16
Coolidge and Hoover administration During the Coolidge administration, work began in the State Department to compile a comprehensive review of all the instances of state actions done in the name of the Monroe Doctrine. This would be the most comprehensive document of its kind and the task was given to the then Undersecretary J. Reuben Clark. In 1928, his office issued the Clark Memorandum, which importantly separated out the Monroe Doctrine from the Roosevelt Corollary and clarified that not all foreign interventions fall under the Monroe Doctrine.
The memorandum lay dormant until President Herbert Hoover adopted it. Following a policy of non-intervention, Hoover was one of the strongest voices against U.S. occupation as well as an enthusiastic promoter of inter-American relations.
Roosevelt administration
Background While working under President Wilson, Roosevelt had perpetuated ideas of American racial superiority by believing that the people of Latin American were incapable of self-government. However, by 1928 he had switched his point of view, becoming an advocate for cooperation.
The Great Depression meant that trade with foreign countries had suffered a massive blow, so the U.S. government were actively trying to find a way to compensate for it.
Policy In an effort to denounce past U.S. interventionism and subdue any subsequent fears of Latin Americans, Roosevelt announced on March 4, 1933, during his inaugural address, "In the field of World policy, I would dedicate this nation to the policy of the good neighbor, the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others, the neighbor who respects his obligations and respects the sanctity of his agreements in and with a World of neighbors." In order to create a friendly relationship between the United States and Central as well as South American countries, Roosevelt sought to abstain from asserting military force in the region.Good Neighbor Policy, 1933 –1921–1936 – Milestones – Office of the Historian (Good Neighbor Policy, 1933 –1921–1936 – Milestones – Office of the Historian) https://history.state.gov/milestones/1921-1936/good-neighbor This position was affirmed by Cordell Hull, Roosevelt's secretary of state at a conference of American states in Montevideo in December 1933. Hull said: "No country has the right to intervene in the internal or external affairs of another." Roosevelt then confirmed the policy in December of the same year: "The definite policy of the United States from now on is one opposed to armed intervention."
Impact
The Good Neighbor Policy terminated the U.S. Marines occupation of Haiti in 1934, led to the annulment of the Platt Amendment by the Treaty of Relations with Cuba in 1934, and allowed for the negotiation of compensation for Mexico's nationalization of foreign-owned oil assets to take place in 1938.
The United States Maritime Commission contracted Moore-McCormack Lines to operate a "Good Neighbor fleet" of ten cargo ships and three recently laid-up ocean liners between the United States and South America. The passenger liners were the recently defunct Panama Pacific Line's , Virginia and Pennsylvania. Moore-McCormack had them refurbished and renamed them SS Uruguay, and for their new route between New York and Buenos Aires via Rio de Janeiro, Santos, and Montevideo.
The policy sought to redefine the way Americans perceived Latin Americans, both politically as well as racially, while at the same time maintaining hemispheric unity. In order to accomplish this, Roosevelt created the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs (OCIAA) in August 1940 and appointed Nelson Rockefeller to head the organization. The OCIAA was essentially a propaganda tool used by the United States to define Latin American society, as they perceived it. One division within the OCIAA, the Motion Picture Division, was headed by John Hay Whitney, with the main intent to abolish preexisting stereotypes of Latin Americans that were prevalent throughout American society.Amanda Ellis, "Captivating a Country With Her Curves: Examining the Importance of Carmen Miranda's Iconography in Creating National Identities."(Masters Thesis, State University of New York at Buffalo, 2008), Whitney was convinced of:The power that Hollywood films could exert in the two-pronged campaign to win the hearts and minds of Latin Americans and to convince Americans of the benefits of Pan-American friendship.In order to accomplish this, Whitney urged film studios to hire Latin Americans and to produce movies that placed Latin America in a favorable light. Further, he urged filmmakers to refrain from producing movies that perpetuated negative stereotypes. Historically, Latin Americans were portrayed as lazy, backwards and suspicious.Data adapted from Public Opinion 1935–1946, ed. Hadley Cantril (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1951), 502. One film star who emerged then was Carmen Miranda. Used as a product to promote positive hemispheric relations, her films, including The Gang's All Here, explicitly promoted the Good Neighbor policy.
Similarly, in 1941 William S. Paley and Edmund A. Chester at CBS Radio collaborated with the OCIAA to create the La Cadena de las Américas (Network of the Americas) radio network to broadcast news and cultural programs which reflected Roosevelt's Good neighbor Policy and Pan-Americanism throughout Latin America during World War II.In All His Glory: The Life and Times of William S. Paley and the Birth of Modern Broadcasting. Salley Bedell Smith. Random House Trade Publications, New York, 2002, Chapter 18 William S. Paley and La Cadena de las Americas on Books.google.comTime – Radio: La Cadena, June 1, 1942 William S. Paley, La Cadena de las Americas on Content.time.com As a professional journalist, Chester insisted upon the presentation of accurate news programming as well as cultural programs which dispelled the negative stereotype of Americans toiling as automatons in a national industrial machine.Dissonant Divas in Chicana Music: The Limits of La Onda Deborah R. Vargas. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 2012 pp. 152–153 OCIAA (Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs), FDR's Good Neighbor Policy, CBS, La Cadena de las Americas, Edmund A. Chester on google.books.comMedia Sound & Culture in Latin America & the Caribbean. Editors – Bronfman, Alejandra & Wood, Andrew Grant. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, 2012 pp. 41–50 Pan Americanism, FDR's Good Neighbor Policy CBS, OIAA on Books.Google.Com Also, the policy's cultural impact included the launch of CBS Radio's Viva América and Hello Americans programs and the Walt Disney films Saludos Amigos (1942) and The Three Caballeros (1944).
By the end of World War II, Latin America was, according to one historian, the region of the world most supportive of American foreign policy.
Further impact By 1936, global peace was broken as nations in parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa were at war. Against this background the United States called for a special meeting of the Pan-American Union. Held in Buenos Aires from December 3 to December 26, 1936, the Inter-American Conference for the Maintenance of Peace received great attention from the countries of the western hemisphere. Franklin D. Roosevelt attended the meeting in person and delivered a speech in which he said that American countries are determined to live in peace and that if there is any aggression from outside, the countries of the western hemisphere are fully prepared to negotiate for their common security and interests.
The important results of the Buenos Aires Conference in 1936 led to further developments at the Pan-American Conference of Lima 1938, where the Conference of American States agreed in a declaration to settle all disputes peacefully, to refrain from interfering in other countries' internal affairs, to deny recognition of territories seized, and make it illegal to collect debts by force. The declaration was to be known as the "Declaration of Lima".
1939 World's Fair
The 1939 New York World's Fair was just the place to promote neighborly relations between the United States and Latin America. Placed against the backdrop of a growing Nazi threat, the World's Fair was an attempt to escape from the looming prospect of war and to promote peace and interdependence between nations. With the fair boasting over 60 countries, with some coming from Latin America, it was the place to redefine negative Latin American stereotypes.Martha Gil-Montero, Brazilian Bombshell (Donald Fine, Inc., 1989) Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Venezuela, Cuba, Mexico, Nicaragua, and the Pan American Union were all represented at the World's Fair. Each country seized the opportunity to showcase their country and to make it more appealing to those around the world, especially in the United States. In their bid to increase cultural awareness at the World's Fair, each country promoted tourism, and strived to compare itself to the United States in an effort to appeal to Americans.1939 World's Fair Collection, Henry Madden Library Special Collections, California State University, Fresno
Legacy