United States cooperation with its Latin American neighbors has taken many forms since those countries won their independence. During the last three decades this cooperation has been marked by the willingness of the United States to commit huge sums of money in the form of grants and loans to bolster the economies and strengthen the defenses of these Western Hemisphere allies. Military aid, which rose to record heights during World War II, over the years has constituted a minor proportion of total United States assistance to the area. Even so, military assistance, especially where committed to the support of mission activities and training programs, has played a significant role in the development of U. S.-Latin American relations. The present study is designed to tell the story of how the United States inaugurated the different phases of its assistance programs and what it has done to sustain them. Also described are the steps taken by the United States to cooperate in the defense postwar period. Likewise, in certain detail, the story is told of the establishment of the U. S. mission system in Latin America, with discussions of the operations of the military training program, and the steps taken by which the United States came to support the civic action program. Appendix A presents a review of the arguments of congressional opponents of the various military aid programs submitted to Congress by the different Administrations since World War II. Appendix B is a country-by-country review of the actions taken by the United States to secure the cooperation of its Latin American neighbors in World War II. The study is designed to meet the needs of Air University faculty and students whose study and research touches this and related aspects of U. S. Latin American relations. The study is fully documented. Those interested in pursuing other phases of this subject may be helped by the Bibliography. In the century and a half since the American colonies of Spain, Portugal, and France rose in rebellion against their European rulers the United States government has expressed its official attitude toward the new nations that rose out of the 1810-1825 revolutions in various fashions. In the beginning, it took the lead in recognizing the independence of the new nations to the south of it, and in the famous presidential declaration of December 1823 outlined its position vis-a-vis the area and European attempts to reconquer it or to claim title to it. This position, so carefully set forth by President Monroe, was to represent a vital feature of the official policy of the U. S. government toward that area from that date until the present. And, regardless of whether European powers, or the Latin American states for that matter, took much notice of the Monroe Doctrine in the early years or whether the United States could have taken any purposeful action at the time of its issuance to halt a European attempt at reconquest of the recently liberated lands, the fact remains that the doctrine became, with the passage of the years and the rise of the United States to great power status, a cornerstone of U. S. foreign policy and |