Beyond Revolution and Repression: U.S. Foreign Policy and Latin American Democracy, 1980-1989

“Beyond Revolution and Repression: U.S. Foreign Policy and Latin American Democracy, 1980-1989,” explores the history of U.S. efforts to promote democracy amidst Latin American civil conflicts during the final, climactic decade of the Cold War. Using materials from U.S., Central American, and South American diplomatic archives, the dissertation shows how U.S. policies initially designed to combat the military threat of Leftist revolution gave way to a strategy that emphasized political and economic liberalization as a means of undermining the Left in Latin America and securing political support at home. This new interpretation of Reagan's foreign policy illustrates how the unlikely embrace of democracy promotion shaped U.S.-Latin American relations beyond the end of the Cold War, and presaged debates about the relationship between power and values in U.S. foreign policy that continue to resonate after America’s “neoconservative moment.”