Masters of War: Latin America and United States Aggression from the Cuban Revolution through the Clinton Years (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

In Masters of War, Clara Nieto adeptly presents the parallel histories of the countries of Latin America, histories which are intertwined, each reflecting the United States’ "coherent policy of intervention" set into motion by the Monroe Doctrine. As the value of this continued policy comes increasingly into question, Nieto argues for the need to evaluate the alarming precedent set in Latin America: the institution of client dictatorships, the roles played by the interests of U.S. corporations, the enormous tolls taken on civilian populations, and the irreversible disruption of regional stability.

Clara Nieto’s Masters of War first appeared in Colombia, where it became a national best seller. Now available for the first time in English, it has been revised and expanded to address new developments in U.S. and Latin American politics such as the conflicts in the Middle East, the U.S. rejection of the International Criminal Court, recent controversies over globalization, and the new governments of Chavez and Uribe in Venezuela and Colombia.

Drawing from an impressive array of documents and sources as well as from her unique first-hand insights as a participant in crucial meetings and negotiations in the region from the mid-1960s through the mid-1980s, Nieto chronicles the Cuban Revolution, the CIA-sponsored coup against popularly elected President Allende in Chile, the U.S. invasions of Panama and Grenada, U.S. support for the cultivation and training of paramilitary death squads in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Colombia, as well as similarly severe but less well-known situations in other countries such as Uruguay, Venezuela, Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, Honduras, and Guatemala.

Nieto shows how movements for social change and economic progress among the farmers and factory workers of South and Central America raised alarms in Washington as manifestations of the threat of Communism while the brutality used to suppress these movements was actively supported by the U.S. as an instrument of freedom and democracy. She introduces us to the presidents, government advisors, generals, guerrilla leaders, and intelligence officials who kept the region ablaze with political turmoil and bitter armed conflicts.

Masters of War is powerful in many respects: it offers, from an informed perspective, perhaps for the first time, a distanced, objective analysis of recent Latin American history, and the book revisits this history at a crucial moment. Developments in U.S. foreign policy are drawing sharp criticism from all over the world for espousing double standards, unilateralism, and unprecedented displays of military force as appropriate means to further its own interests. Clara Nieto’s depth of knowledge and understanding is an invaluable resource at a time when the media is seen as unapologetically aligned with the interests of major corporations and policymakers, and the American public has reached a new height of apprehension regarding the intentions behind and consequences of its government’s policies.

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Spanish --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 640 pages
• Publisher: Seven Stories Press (September 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1583225455
• ISBN-13: 978-1583225455
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #701,858 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Long Narrative of US Agression towards Latin America, June 17, 2007

By	A Student of History (Earth) - See all my reviews

This book is a typical denunciation of US policy towards Latin America. It focuses on Cuba since the Revolution (1959), but covers events from countries throughout the region, including the Central American civil wars and the Southern Cone military dictatorships. Everything is true in the book; but its great weakness is that it is nothing more than a long list of events trying to show that US policy towards Latin America was belligerent in the latter half of the twentieth century. It lacks any original or dynamic interpretations. I would only recommend this book to someone who does not know, or believe, that the United States has behaved as an imperial power in Latin America.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent account of recent Latin American history, July 12, 2004

By	William Podmore (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

In this excellent history of Latin America since 1959, the Colombian diplomat Clara Nieto surveys the continent country by country, showing how the US state has consistently intervened in their internal affairs.
The alliance of neo-liberalism and social democracy internally, the USA and the EU externally, has kept capitalism in power in Latin America. So half its people live in worsening poverty, a third are unemployed, and foreign debt totals $400 billion.
Nieto focuses on the Cuban revolution and its effects. In March 1959, President Eisenhower ordered CIA sabotage and terrorism against Cuba. Kennedy was worse: Nieto writes, "His policies opposing the Revolution were more aggressive than Eisenhower's." Two days before the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, US planes bombed Cuba's cities, under Kennedy's orders. Kennedy started the US policy of counter-insurgency in Latin America (and Africa and Asia), supporting death squads and military dictatorships. Nieto shows how the US state sponsored counterrevolutionary wars in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Guatemala and Chile.
Johnson carried on Kennedy's policies: he backed the generals' fascist coup in Brazil in 1964, and attacked the Dominican Republic in 1965. Nieto depicts Reagan's wars - occupying Honduras, arming the death squads of El Salvador, running the Contras' terrorist war against Nicaragua, attacking Grenada - and Bush's attack on Panama.
The US state has never ceased its illegal, terrorist attacks on Cuba. The New York Times reported in 1983 how the head of a Miami-based anti-Cuban terrorist group admitted in a US court that he had taken germs to Cuba in 1980, proving Cuba's accusations of CIA biological warfare against Cuba. The US state made Armando Valladares - a former Batista police officer and convicted terrorist - ambassador and president of its delegation to the UN Human Rights Commission.
But the Commission's 1989 report refuted all the US slanders about Cuba's torture and abuse of political prisoners. The world knows now who tortures and abuses political prisoners detained without charge or trial.
Nieto's final chapter examines how Cuba has survived and kept its revolution going. The key is that its people, determined to defend their democracy, independence and sovereignty, actively prevent the counter-revolution from organising.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for the student of Latin American history, October 6, 2005

By	Goshawk "Goshawk" (Hope Mills, NC) - See all my reviews

Overall an excellent book that deals with U.S. military interventions in Latin America from the perspective of a Latin American scholar. My one critique of the book is an obvious bias against the United States with no intent on even trying to be objective. I would still highly recommend it. The obvious biases aside it is an excellent tool in understanding why Latin American people and leaders have negative feelings towards the United States and why Latin Americans see the U.S. as the bad guys.