US Public Diplomacy Strategies in Latin America During the Sixties

This book seeks to address US public diplomacy strategies in Latin America, of particular importance during the 1960s when the leadership of the United States had been questioned after the Cuban Revolution.

The implicit mandate was "No more Cubas" so that what happened in the Caribbean country would not spread to other countries. The actions of the United States toward its southern neighbors in the first half of the twentieth century are quite well known. In contrast, Latin American scenarios of the Cultural Cold War have remained relatively less well known. The contributors and editors of this volume examine various facets and means of action used by the "US machinery of persuasion" with the aim of disseminating the virtues of its socioeconomic and political model, including both public and private efforts, and the significance of nonstate actors. Subjects examined include the impact of the theory of modernization; anti-Americanism; the deployment of public diplomacy in the region; the activities of the Congress for Cultural Freedom and the Rockefeller Foundation; and the influence of these efforts on sporting, artistic, and musical events.

This volume will be of value to students and scholars alike interested in Latin American history and history of the Americas.

Francisco Rodríguez-Jiménez is currently working at the Instituto de Ciências Sociais in Lisbon and was formerly a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University and Fulbrighter at American University and George Washington University. His research centers around the so-called Cultural Cold War. Among his latest publications: Trump. Historia de una presidencia singular (2022).

Lorenzo Delgado Gómez-Escalonilla is Senior Researcher at the National Research Council of Spain (CSIC). He has worked on Euro-Atlantic relations during the Cold War, especially public diplomacy and cultural, educational, and scientific transfers. Among his recent publications: Teaching Modernization. Spanish and Latin American Educational Reform in the Cold War (2020).

Benedetta Calandra is Associate Professor of History of the Americas at the University of Bergamo. Her main research interests focus on the politics of memory and exile in Latin America and Inter-American cultural Cold War. Among her recent publications: Cultural Philanthropy and Political Exile. The Ford Foundation Between Argentina and the United States (2019).