From Publishers Weekly
Musicant's anecdote-studded survey of U.S. interventions in Central America and the Caribbean clearly establishes the differences between Dollar Diplomacy, which transformed some of the target nations to economic vassalship, and the justified interventions that saved others from collapse. The 19-year occupation of Haiti, for instance, was the most prosperous and stable period in that nation's history, he shows. The 1927 intervention in Nicaragua, on the other hand, was unnecessary from both strategic and economic standpoints and "drew the opprobrium of even the military personnel involved." Musicant ( Battleship at War ) discusses the political, economic and strategic background of the interventions in Panama, Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Grenada, then turns his narrative skills to the military operations that dominated each episode. His concluding chapter on the December 1989 invasion of Panama is the most complete and clarifying account to date. Photos.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Given recent events in Central America and the Caribbean, this is a good time for a general popular history of overt U.S. military intercession since 1898. Musicant is a naval historian, and this work concentrates on the military aspects, with enough political background to make it meaningful. Oddly, there is only one regional map. There is no attempt to cover the privately led filibustering expeditions nor the various instances of U.S. nonmilitary pressure against governments; there is nothing on the Bay of Pigs nor the overthrow of the Arbanz regime in 1954. Still, there is much of interest: the historical perspective in Augusto Sandino's original 1927 rebellion in Nicaragua; and Musicant's honest, accurate report of American military bungling in Grenada. A sound and readable book for all public libraries.
- Raymond L. Puffer, U.S. Air Force History Prog., Los Angeles
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- Raymond L. Puffer, U.S. Air Force History Prog., Los Angeles
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
