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Confronting the Third World: United States Foreign Policy, 1945-1980
Analyzes U.S. foreign policy towards the Middle East and Latin America, and argues that the U.S. has often created political instability
332 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1988
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About the author
Gabriel Kolko
24 books35 followersA historian specializing in 20th century Ameican politics and foreign policy, Gabriel Morris Kolko earned his BA in history from Kent State University in 1954, his MS from the University of Wisconsin in 1955, and his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1962. He taught at the University of Pennsylvania and at SUNY-Buffalo before joining the history department of York University in Toronto in 1970.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 14, 2014
IMPERIAL AMERICA AND THE THIRD WORLD
In my opinion Gabriel Kolko is one of the finest writers of the post World War Two international scene, with his primary interest being the United States role within that period. His "Anatomy of a War: Vietnam, the United States, and the Modern Historical Experience" is the premier work on the Vietnam War, at least as far as analysis of all the factors, and how they interacted over the period of American involvement goes. The book under review covers the United States interactions with the Third World in the period after World War Two.
All factors fall under Kolko's purview, the outlook and doctrines of the U.S. itself, from concerns about access to raw materials, protecting U.S. investments, Cold War considerations (which often had little to do with Third world countries becoming allied with the U.S.S.R. at least until U.S. involvement became overtly hostile) and interactions with Britain, France, Belgium and Portugal: the colonial (eventually former colonial) powers.
In American planning, Africa is largely left to their Cold-War allies in Western Europeans, it being viewed as vital to bolstering their recovery from World War Two. Latin America is marked down as purely a U.S. area, and where American interests in terms of trade and investment are strongest. Asia is part shared with Japan, who (the U.S. decides) must have their raw materials needs met from the South-East Asian countries, who in turn must remain in the Capitalist World, or the pressures on Japan to seek accommodation with the Communist bloc would become intolerable. In the Middle East, the United States simply look to edge the British out (largely accomplished by the coup in Iran in 1953 and the Suez crisis of 1956) and maintain access to the regions oil resources.
The big problem from the United States point of view is that the countries concerned, especially after decolonization, had their own agendas with regard to development of their resources, industrial policies, and bringing a degree of socio-economic development to their own people after decades, or centuries, of servicing the colonial powers. When these developments didn't coincide (which given American aims they intrinsically couldn't) with American interests, or threw up the possibility of setting a "bad" example to others such as in Cuba (1959-), Guatemala (1945-53), Chile (1970-73), the Congo (1959/60), Indonesia (in the period leading up to 1965) and the Dominican Republic (also in the period leading up to 1965) then U.S. relations would become rapidly hostile, and everything from covert action, coups to military action would be on the agenda. Kolko includes concise accounts of U.S. hostilities with all the above mentioned countries, plus the countless others who have been on the receiving end up U.S. interventions.
Kolko's "Confronting the Third World: United States Foreign Policy 1945-1980", though now 25 years old, is still a classic overview of American involvement in the third world after World War Two. If the reader is looking for descriptions of military operations and battles, and colourful accounts of Presidents and Generals then they would be best looking elsewhere as Kolko's primary (but not exclusive) interest is in the factors, trends and developments whether economic, political, or socio-economic that underlay events, and the unforeseen manner in which American interventions caused them to develop. Despite this lack of supposed colour, a workmanlike prose style, and the condensing of thirty-five years of U.S. interactions with the entire Third World into little over 300 pages, I still found it a fascinating, occasionally exhilarating read. Kolko cuts through the subject with astonishing concision, with his characteristic systematic and erudite analysis, and a sharp nose for the key facts. It is a great shame that he has not updated the book to bring it forward to contemporary times.
In my opinion Gabriel Kolko is one of the finest writers of the post World War Two international scene, with his primary interest being the United States role within that period. His "Anatomy of a War: Vietnam, the United States, and the Modern Historical Experience" is the premier work on the Vietnam War, at least as far as analysis of all the factors, and how they interacted over the period of American involvement goes. The book under review covers the United States interactions with the Third World in the period after World War Two.
All factors fall under Kolko's purview, the outlook and doctrines of the U.S. itself, from concerns about access to raw materials, protecting U.S. investments, Cold War considerations (which often had little to do with Third world countries becoming allied with the U.S.S.R. at least until U.S. involvement became overtly hostile) and interactions with Britain, France, Belgium and Portugal: the colonial (eventually former colonial) powers.
In American planning, Africa is largely left to their Cold-War allies in Western Europeans, it being viewed as vital to bolstering their recovery from World War Two. Latin America is marked down as purely a U.S. area, and where American interests in terms of trade and investment are strongest. Asia is part shared with Japan, who (the U.S. decides) must have their raw materials needs met from the South-East Asian countries, who in turn must remain in the Capitalist World, or the pressures on Japan to seek accommodation with the Communist bloc would become intolerable. In the Middle East, the United States simply look to edge the British out (largely accomplished by the coup in Iran in 1953 and the Suez crisis of 1956) and maintain access to the regions oil resources.
The big problem from the United States point of view is that the countries concerned, especially after decolonization, had their own agendas with regard to development of their resources, industrial policies, and bringing a degree of socio-economic development to their own people after decades, or centuries, of servicing the colonial powers. When these developments didn't coincide (which given American aims they intrinsically couldn't) with American interests, or threw up the possibility of setting a "bad" example to others such as in Cuba (1959-), Guatemala (1945-53), Chile (1970-73), the Congo (1959/60), Indonesia (in the period leading up to 1965) and the Dominican Republic (also in the period leading up to 1965) then U.S. relations would become rapidly hostile, and everything from covert action, coups to military action would be on the agenda. Kolko includes concise accounts of U.S. hostilities with all the above mentioned countries, plus the countless others who have been on the receiving end up U.S. interventions.
Kolko's "Confronting the Third World: United States Foreign Policy 1945-1980", though now 25 years old, is still a classic overview of American involvement in the third world after World War Two. If the reader is looking for descriptions of military operations and battles, and colourful accounts of Presidents and Generals then they would be best looking elsewhere as Kolko's primary (but not exclusive) interest is in the factors, trends and developments whether economic, political, or socio-economic that underlay events, and the unforeseen manner in which American interventions caused them to develop. Despite this lack of supposed colour, a workmanlike prose style, and the condensing of thirty-five years of U.S. interactions with the entire Third World into little over 300 pages, I still found it a fascinating, occasionally exhilarating read. Kolko cuts through the subject with astonishing concision, with his characteristic systematic and erudite analysis, and a sharp nose for the key facts. It is a great shame that he has not updated the book to bring it forward to contemporary times.
Displaying 1 of 1 review