ShmoopTube

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[ musical flourish ]

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And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by overthrow,

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the underestimation of one's outer strength.

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All right, give this excerpt a read.

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[ mumbles ] Truman Doctrine.

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All right, and the question:

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How did the United States both follow and violate the Truman Doctrine

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with its Cold War actions in Latin America?

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And here are your potential answers.

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[ mumbles ]

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All right, well, during the Cold War, the U.S. made some

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pretty, uh, interesting choices in how it dealt with

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political instability in Latin America.

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So let's see how the U.S. managed to simultaneously

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play by and break the rules of the Truman Doctrine

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in their adventures south of the border.

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During the Cold War in Latin America did A -

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the United States offer economic support to countries not

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threatened by outside forces?

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Well, actually, the U.S. sent significant financial aid only to

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countries they believed were threatened by outside forces,

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so that knocks out A and D.

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Did the U.S. overstep its mission because B -

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extensive military aid was sent to countries

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fighting off communist threats? Hmm.

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Well, most of the country's military resources were

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pretty tied up in Asia at the time, so our efforts were primarily

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economic ones.

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So that eliminates B.

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Which means that the U.S. both followed and violated the Truman Doctrine

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in Cold War Latin America because C -

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communist leaders were overthrown and replaced by dictators

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in a series of CIA-led coups.

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The main policy of the Truman Doctrine involved

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"supporting free peoples who are resisting

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attempted subjugation."

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But the U.S. often assisted those free peoples

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by overthrowing their country's leadership and installing

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hand-picked dictators. [ chuckles ]

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So C is the right answer.

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Unfortunately, these U.S.-backed leaders sometimes sparked as many problems

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as the leftists who preceded them,

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creating a pretty charged climate

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for those clinging to power. [ groaning ]

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