Customer Reviews

The Banana Wars: United States Intervention in the Caribbean, 1898-1934 (Latin American Silhouettes)

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As a nation at war with a country we don't understand, we all need to read this book as well as Mr. Langley's other book "Banana Men". Forget your political ideology and read a well documented account of how the United states tries to shape Central America in their own image, gets bored with it and spawns the conflicts in the 1980s. Mr. Langley gives a quick paced vivid account of the intervention in Central America and the Caribbean. He tells the story of some of the most flamboyant characters in American history. From Chesty Puller stopping a riot by jumping on a crate with his Thompson machine guns blazing to the last words of the diplomat in Haiti asking why the Haitians wanted the Americans out. The Haitian official's statement was to the effect of "Yes, our country is a mess, but it's our mess, Please leave".

Read this book it will give you a great perspective about good intentions and how they can go wrong when you don't understand the people you are trying to "help". Could go a long way in understanding our current intervention.

An excellent book on a neglected and almost forgotten period of US foreign policy. These were the days when Navy captains put their Bluejackets ashore in Latin America to quiet the quarrelsome natives, and left Washington to sort out the consequences. There is not much larger context in this book--very little discussion of imperialism in general, or specific US policies towards Latin America. The emphasis here is on the cast of characters, both Yankee and Latin American, and the micro-steps that led to larger US interventions. The section on Cuba is excellent, the chapters on Nicaragua somewhat less so. Great stories here, and fascinating vignettes, but not much focus on larger issues. A full understanding of this period of US foreign policy is necessary to understand the tragedies in Latin America in the 1970s and 1980s, and this book offers accessible, entertaining tales. If you are interested in the Cuban or Nicaraguan revolutions, get this book. And get Grandin's "Empire's Workshop".