United States and Latin America

Within the framework of a sound policy recommendation, that the United States should pay more attention to nations other than Cuba, Nicaragua and El Salvador in formulating its hemispheric foreign policy, William Pfaff has perpetrated misconceptions about Latin American history that the last generation of scholarship on the region has struggled to overcome (“Confronting the Real Latin Crisis,” Op-Ed Page, Jan. 30). Building on a correct characterization of Iberian imperial policy as one of extracting wealth from their colonies, a function primarily of the historical period during which these empires operated, Pfaff hypothesizes that this left an intractable legacy that precluded the modernization of the region. This cultural explanation of history has been contradicted by researchers from almost all positions on the ideological spectrum.

The explanation is found in subsequent historical patterns. The domination of Latin America passed from Spain and Portugal to the British and then to the United States. With the acquiescence of the dominant sectors of these nations, the region assumed a role in the world economy as suppliers of raw materials and consumers of finished goods. However, resistance to this pattern of relationships arising from within the region was met with military, diplomatic and/or economic action by the dominating states. The economic justification for this policy was the doctrine of comparative advantage, a static analysis fabricated by English economists, made credible by the economic realities of a period of dramatically expanding world trade.

When this expansion came to an end, the structural inequalities imposed by the world economic system formed an impenetrable barrier to development. The Third World Movement has represented an effort to alter these relationships on the basis of negotiation with the former colonial and neocolonial powers.

The current discussions in Moscow on the Cuban missile crisis demonstrate that failure to comprehend the perspective from which other nations judge our actions cripples our leaders as they seek to make rational policy decisions.

MARJORIE WOODFORD

BRAY

Coordinator of Latin

American Studies

Cal State Los Angeles