The Banana Wars: A History of United States Military Intervention in Latin America from the Spanish-American War to the Invasion of Panama

by Ivan Musicant

"Musicant has worked together a series of small histories of Western Hemisphere campaigns by America during the last 100 years. His is a wonderfully researched & well-told history. He covers the various Cuban & Haitian dramas; wars in Nicaragua & Panama, plus the the Dominican Republic emergency &, finally, the Grenada invasion. In every case there's an intial effort to explain the politics, followed by an accessible description of the campaign. It's a fine work that enables people to understand both the politics of Western Hemisphere intervention, plus the military realities."--Matherson (edited)
"This excellent title describes in good detail the small wars that the US Marine Corps was involved in from 1898-1989 in the Caribbean. Musicant (a former Marine) weaves a well-written tale, which is primarily focused in the military situation, but adding just enough of the political background so that one who has little or no knowledge on the subject comes away with a full understanding of our involvement in these banana wars. Recommended reading!"--Darryl R. Smith (edited)
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Empire by default, 1898
Cuba, 1899-1917
Panama, 1885-1904
Nicaragua I, 1912
Haiti, 1915-34
Dominican Republic I, 1916-24
Nicaragua II, 1927-34
Dominican Republic II, 1965
Grenada, 1983
Afterword: The Panama invasion, 1989
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, Politics, War, Latin American History, Military Fiction

470 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 1990

Reviews

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a general introductory survey of many of the invasions of Central American states by the USA from the late nineteenth century through our overthrow of Grenada under the Reagan administration. A bit more outrage would have been appropriate as all, or virtually all, of these interventions were not only immoral but illegal.

[Shane · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was very well researched and very very thorough. It was however presented in a fashion that was so dry, I get thirsty just thinking about it.

[Marshall Snyder · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent overview of the U.S. interventions in the Caribbean and Central America from Cuba in 1898 to Panama in 1989. Nation building in Haiti, Dominican Republic, and Nicaragua in the early 20th Century didn’t turn out any better than it did in Iraq and Afghanistan in the 21st! The lessons of history are almost always ignored!

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very readable narrative of the United States' military experience in Latin (in this case, Central) America. The subject is little covered in most of our education save for some petulant whining by the "usual suspect" types. Rather than listen to the political diatribe from some partisan with an axe to grind, read this book and learn for yourself!

[Josh Liller · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book because of how much I enjoyed the author's Empire by Default: The Spanish-American War and the Dawn of the American Century. This book's ten chapters cover various military interventions by the United States in Central America and the Caribbean. Some are obvious choices: Panama, Nicaragua, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic in the early 1900s. The first chapter, about the Spanish-American War, is now redundant, having been subsequently covered much better and more extensively in the author's aforementioned later book. The Dominican Republic, Grenada, and Panama in the latter half of the 20th century are surprising inclusions as they are not normally considered part of the Banana Wars and are tied to Cold War politics. Honduras and Mexico are completely omitted.

The omissions are probably deliberate as the author presents a mostly positive appraisal of the interventions he covers - how they usually brought stability and quality of life improvements, often stopping civil wars and preventing much worse bloodshed. The narrative emphasis is on military operations and politics - not economics. The three modern interventions compare and contrast with the seven earlier interventions.

The last two chapters, about Grenada and Noriega's Panama, are hampered by being too recent to the writing, with a lot of details still classified. Parts of the book suffer from feeling repetitive, although some of that is because the events described were repetitive. It is interesting to see how many recognizable names and future Marine Corps commandants played notable roles in the classic Banana Wars.

This seems to be the author's first published book, and his writing definitely feels less refined compared to his Empire by Default: The Spanish-American War and the Dawn of the American Century, published eight years later.

It's an okay book, with a focus some readers will like and others will not. I can't for for certain, but I would expect there are better works available about the Banana Wars.

[Tim Maurer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was recommended to me because I'm involved in some amazing work in Nicaragua. At this point, I've only read the chapters directly related to Nicaragua, but I would like to return to the text because the influence of the U.S. in Latin America is pervasive--and the fate of many of those countries has long been intertwined.

[Leonardo]

...una larga historia de las intervenciones militares de Estados Unidos en América Latina y, en especial en Centroamérica.

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