In this remarkable and engaging book, William LeoGrande offers the first comprehensive history of U.S. foreign policy toward Central America in the waning years of the Cold War. From the overthrow of the Somoza dynasty in Nicaragua and the outbreak of El Salvador's civil war in the late 1970s to the final regional peace settlements negotiated a decade later, he chronicles the dramatic struggles--in Washington and Central America--that shaped the region's destiny. For good or ill, LeoGrande argues, Central America's fate hinged on decisions that were subject to intense struggles among, and within, Congress, the CIA, the Pentagon, the State Department, and the White House--decisions over which Central Americans themselves had little influence. Like the domestic turmoil unleashed by Vietnam, he says, the struggle over Central America was so divisive that it damaged the fabric of democratic politics at home. It inflamed the tug-of-war between Congress and the executive branch over control of foreign policy and ultimately led to the Iran-contra affair, the nation's most serious political crisis since Watergate.

This popular text surveys the history of the Central American region, covering Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama, from pre-Columbian times to the present. It emphasizes the common characteristics of the Central American states as well as their potential for political union. Now completely updated, the third edition of Central America: A Nation Divided encompasses the significant new research and tumultuous events that have taken place since the last edition was published. The text now includes coverage of the civil wars in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, as well as the restoration of peace to the region under the Central American peace accords. It also recounts and analyzes the substantial changes that have occurred in the economic and social arenas as Central American states have turned increasingly to neoliberal policies that emphasize the private sector and the development of exports while reducing government entitlement programs. Students will find this text enormously helpful for sorting through the vast amounts of significant research that has been written and compiled in the past decade. In addition, the Selective Guide to the Literature section has been completely revised to reflect the great increase in research and writing on Central America. Comprehensive and incisively written, Central America: A Nation Divided is an essential text for Latin American History courses.

Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica are five small countries, and yet no other part of the world is more important to the US.

This book is a concise overview of the recent history of U.S.-Central American relations. Part of the Contemporary Inter-American Relations series edited by Jorge Dominguez and Rafael Fernandez de Castro, it focuses on the relations between the U.S. and this region since the end of the Cold War. The volume considers economic relations between the two regions, presenting pertinent information on the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). It also looks at political issues such as military cooperation, security issues, the drug trade and organized crime, democracy in the region, and migration. Finally, it concludes with an assessment of the direction US-Central American relations are taking at present, moving beyond the black-and-white challenges of Soviet domination in the region to address post-9/11 security concerns. The United States and Central America will be of interest to students and scholars of foreign policy, Latin American politics and politics and international relations in general.

In a work of unprecedented scope, Thomas D. Schoonover combines exhaustive multicountry archival research with a sophisticated theoretical framework grounded in world systems theory to elucidate the relations between the United States and Central America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Schoonover's archival research in Central America, Europe, and the United States encompasses public, business, organizational, and individual records. In analyzing this material, Schoonover applies a world systems theory approach with that of social imperialism and dependency theory to underscore the broad, multistate dimension of international affairs. In exploring the international history of Central America, Schoonover describes the role of personalities such as John C. Frémont, Otto von Bismarck, Theodore Roosevelt, Manuel Estrada Cabrera, and José Santos Zelaya; the impact of railroad building and canal projects; and the role of pan-Americanism, nationalism, racism, and anti-Americanism.

In this study, Thomas Leonard examines the history of relations between the United States and the countries of Central America. Placing those relations in their political, cultural, and economic contexts, he illuminates the role of such factors as the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850, William Walker's invasions of Nicaragua, Theodore Roosevelt's corollary to the Monroe Doctrine in 1904, the "Dollar Diplomacy" of the 1910s, and Ronald Reagan's support of the contra war. Central America and the United States is the fourth volume in The United States and the Americas, a series of books assessing relations between the United States and its neighbors to the south and north: Mexico, Central America, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, the Andean Republics (Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia), Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay, Argentina, Chile, and Canada. Lester D. Langley is the general editor of the series.