we cannot keep reacting to attacks anymore. we have to turn the concept around. you set booby-traps. you create customized environments. we have to engage in threat hunting. >> watch monday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span2. >> next on american history tv, raymond geselbracht, a formal archivist at the areas truman -- harry s truman library and museum, talks about truman's latin american travels. he explores the latin american legacy through photos and truman's detailed diary entries. the truman white house and -- to send carlos in's to in key west, florida hosted the , conference. this is an hour.

>> we are very honored this is our 15th annual symposium. we are pleased as the truman u.s. foundation to bring distinguished scholars to continue to report on the legacy of harry truman. every year, i have discovered we learn something new. as harry would say, history is a process of discovery and history is the only thing we don't know. guess what? we will know more when we get done then when we began. we have a distinguished group today. i would like to introduce the presidents grandson, clifton truman daniel. he has been our honored guest the last 15 years, as well. [applause]

mr. daniel: thank you bob, thank you mike, thank you to our distinguished scholars and ladies and gentlemen for being here. welcome. i have been coming here since the first one. it is a terrible chore to come down to key west every year. i think this is the first rainy day we have ever had. we had to have it at some point. i have one story, through a series of events, i have worked with victims of hiroshima and nagasaki the last four years. i try to think, what would my grandfather feel about this? i found my answer in the story about his presidential visit to mexico in 1947, when he laid a wreath at the monument of six mexican army cadets who had died fighting against united states 100 years earlier.

the reporter asked him afterward, why would you lay a wreath at the tomb of our former enemies? my grandfather said, because they had courage. that does not become -- belong to anyone country. i found my answer in that. i'm looking forward to this. we always learn something. thank you for coming, and welcome. [applause] >> good morning. i am the former director of the areas truman library in independence, missouri, where have the pleasure of serving with pleasure for 13 years.

one of my ongoing historical jobs since retirement is to work with the good folks at the truman little white house in organizing a truman legacy symposium, looking at the truman administration and more importantly, how that very important presidential administration impacts our life and times down to today. as bob said, this is our 15th year of putting on such a symposium. we are delighted to have the good folks at c-span with us again to help bring the program to a wider audience. i would like to think bob walls, the director of the truman little white house, and just work towards america, an organization that has supported all 15 of our programs.

also the key west areas truman little white house foundation, which raises money to put the programs on and support the good work they do at the truman little white house. one little housekeeping matter -- if you have your schedule for today's activities, we will delay everything by 15 minutes since we are getting started late. atit says rake at -- break 10:15, it will be 10:30, so if you need coffee, you'll have to tough it out. it is my pleasure to the program started by introducing dr. marilou phifer. she is with the honors program at florida international university good she will be moderating our first session and will introduce our initial speaker this morning.

[applause] >> good morning. this is such a pleasure to be here. i have been coming to this legacy conference for 14 years. i missed the first one. i was on my way to islamorada the second year and i heard an advertisement on public podcast radio about the legacy conference. i came all the way to key west and got hooked and became a member of the truman little white house foundation and met

bob walls and mike devine and bob's lovely wife who is not with us today. i also met why gomez, who after a couple of years said, i think you ought to bring students from the honors college. thank you, roy, for the charitable gift to bring students. my students are here. they have been here every year. clifton alluded to the year we worked on the stories, and it was fabulous. the intimacy of the conference is amazing. to be with experts in their field, and those of you speaking today, i look forward to it, because this gives me an opportunity as a student to learn close and true facts come which is amazing at this point in time in life. i want to introduce a man that i would like to sit and spend a week with, 24 hours a day, seven days a week and pick his brain. he is one of the most billion -- brilliant men i think i've ever met.

a graduate of uc santa barbara, one of the most beautiful places in the world. he did undergraduate and graduate work. his brain is like einstein, it is a wealth of information that is absolutely phenomenon. -- phenomenal. ray, i don't want to take a more of your time here when you see me with my hands, it is time for questions and your conclusion. thank you. [applause] mr. geselbracht: i want to thank marilou for telling very tall tales about me. i cannot live up to any of that.

i will talk to you about president truman's legacy in latin america. it started right away. the photograph in this file is of president truman's oval office in the white house. you noticed the big photograph of george washington. every day, truman sitting at his desk, looking up from his papers from time to time, looking down the length of the office, saul george washington, and on both sides of george washington, the major latin american liberators, bolivar on the left and send -- san martin on the right. latin america was in truman's mind probably all the time. what is the legacy with respect

to latin america the truman inherited any became president in april, 1945? first was not intervention and interventionism. these two things have been strangely intertwined. it seems like they should be opposites, and maybe they are, maybe they are not. we will explore that today through the talk. james monroe, in his 1823 state of the union address, said that the american continent, by free and independent condition, which they have assumed and maintained are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any

european powers. this was the monroe doctrine. 1823. the first real attempt to oppose european intervention in an american country occurred in 1895. there is a dispute between venezuela and british guiana. with of course great britain being involved in the dispute. the united states was worried there might be conflict and intervened. the american secretary of state asserted the right of the night to intervene in the americas to prevent european intervention. he said the united states is practically sovereign on this continent, and it's fiat is the law on it subjects which -- to which it can find it

interposition. the united states was willing to intervene in order to prevent european intervention in the americas. now this was elaborated in 1904 in the state of the union address given by theodore roosevelt. he defined a policy which held that the united states had the right to intervene in the americas to prevent the development of conditions that might cause european intervention. not only to prevent intervention itself, but the development of condition in the americas that might result in european intervention. this came to be called the roosevelt corollary to the monroe doctrine. roosevelt said he wanted the united states american neighbors to be stable, orderly and prosperous. if they were all the things, they had no problems from the united states. but if anyone of the american states that was close to the united states failed to keep order, failed to pay its debts, behave in a civilized way, roosevelt said the adherence to the monroe doctrine may force the united states in such

flagrant cases to the exercise of an international police power. this was called popularly roosevelt's big stick diplomacy. that was the first legacy truman inherited. the second was pan americanism. it was implicit in the idea that the americas for a new world. it went back to the time of exploration and has been the new world was a world of fresh beginnings. it was opposed to the old world of europe, which had suffered the burdens of a long and

troubled history. this idea was taken up by some of the writers of the federalist papers, who argued that the united states must keep europe out of the americas and avoid the establishment of the kind of balance of power politics that had kept europe and would continue to keep europe in a state of near constant warfare. the monroe doctrine reflects this view, simon bolivar believed your posted threat to the americas, and at the start of the 1820's, organized to defend the americas from european aggression. the idea of collective defense became an important part of the pan-american movement. the phrase cap-americanism was coined in the american press in the 1880's. it was understood to include the idea of collective defense but also economic and commercial areas of common interest. in 1889, 1890, the united states organized the first

inter-american conference in washington, d.c. it did not accomplish its main goals but it did establish the idea that there were going to be inter-american conferences. they continued from time to time every several years. a notable one was the 1928 conference in havana, which was particularly important because the latin americans objected strongly to that by that time, it had been one to five years of american intervention, particular in the caribbean region. they argued no state has a right to intervene in the internal affairs of another and offer that as a resolution. the american delegate to that inter-american conference rose to his feet and argued in favor of intervention by the united

states in the affairs of latin america. that was important because it was the last time it happened. the next conference was in 1933, and the united states at that conference supported non-intervention resolution. the united states called to special conferences -- two special conferences in the 1930's and 1940's. the first was in buenos aires in 1936. president roosevelt felt argentina to open a conference in person. he said the delegates should "stand shoulder to shoulder to cooperate for their mutual security." emphasis on the security. in 1935, there was a conference in mexico city. one of the resolutions passed by the delegates was called the act of chapultepec.

it stated formally the principal of collective defense again. truman inherent pan-americanism. the third thing he inherited when he became president was the goodpolicy. frank monday roosevelt -- frank monday roosevelt in his first inaugural address devoted only one sentence to foreign policy. in the field of foreign policy, i would dedicate this nation, he said, to the policy of the good neighbor, the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and because he does so, respects the rights of others. the neighbor who respects his obligations and the sanctity of his agreements in and with the world of neighbors. the only sentence in that address. it seems to apply to the whole world.

i think roosevelt intended that. the good neighbor policy came to be applied to latin america. during franklin d roosevelt presidency, the less troops were withdrawn from the caribbean. the united states supported the nonintervention resolution in the 1943 congress. fdr also in 1938, accepted the nationalization of mexico of its oil industry, which included the seizure of american properties, without objection. the good neighbor policy continued in world war ii, during which almost all of the let american nations were supportive of u.s. policies -- the latin american nations were supportive of u.s. policies. this is the good neighbor policy that truman inherited in 1945. did president truman leave a legacy of his own? we will jump ahead a little bit. to -- with respect to latin america. this is our question today.

this is president truman holding up the galleys of a part of his memoirs, which were first published in "life" magazine in 1945. what did president truman think his legacy had been with respect to latin america? his memoirs are about 1100 pages long. he barely mentions latin america in the memoirs. there is no central discussion of any aspect of u.s. relations with latin america. if he felt he had left a legacy, he decided everything else in his presidency was more important than the legacy and did not mention it in his memoirs. what did the situation look like in 1959?

-- 1969? i think 1969 because i have dr. robert farrell's book on american diplomacy at home, and i look at what he said. 1969 is a good time to see with the legacy is because the documentation of the foreign policy of united states during truman's administration was not open in 1969, and just about to be opened a few years later after president truman died and his white house files have begun to be opened. what did it look like in 1969? dr. farrell says "u.s. diplomacy toward latin america lost importance after world war ii it had in the 1930's. truman had said he would continue the good neighbor policy, but there were no large gestures during truman's presidency of the sort made by roosevelt at the conferences. since the end of the second world war, the problems of the united states and latin america

have usually seemed small compared with other areas of the world. for this reason perhaps, and because, in essentials, the good neighbor policy had been a college by 1945, there was a lapse of diplomacy in the region." that is if you're there was a lapse of diplomacy in the region. that was truman's legacy. as it appeared in 1969. let's look at that. first, we're going to explore this issue of legacy to the latin american travels of harry s truman. truman did not appear to neglect latin america during his presidency. he left the united states only six times while he was president. three of these trips, and the only two-state visits truman made during his presidency, were to latin america.

the first in early march, 1947, to mexico. the second in september the same year, was to brazil. the third trip, he went to cuba very briefly, and only two guantanamo -- to guantanamo bay. he also went to the virgin islands. the most important visit was to puerto rico. we will talk about that one. let's see what these visits tell us about the themes of the legacy that president truman was to leave. the first was to mexico city. truman kept a diary. in 1947, he wrote quite a few entries about his visit to mexico. we can follow the visit through his diary. we will try to do so. his plane is landing. he writes, "perfect day, my

pilot never misses a schedule. step down from the plane, the mexican president comes down the steps from the observation tower at the same time. we meet, i like him at once. he introduces his cabinet, i introduce my secretaries and aides. the platform is beautifully decorated and flowers. the mexican president welcomes me. i am made a citizen of the federal district by its governor. he pens a beautiful gold medal on me. i make a suitable reply. i mispronounced to the delight of everybody. somebody yelled from the crowd that everybody mispronounces it." "we get into a big car, have never seen such crowds. such enthusiasm. -- enthusiasm."

this is where truman had dinner with the mexican president. there they are. and truman gave a speech there. he praised the inter-american system and then he addressed the question for the mexicans, interventionism. truman said, we have a good neighbor policy in common. the good neighbor policy specifically includes the

doctrine of nonintervention. what it means is that a strong nation this will have the right to impose its will by reason of strength upon a weaker nation. a wholehearted acceptance of this doctrine that all of us is the keystone of the inter-american system. it is part of the basic international law recognized by all the american republics. my own country will be faithful to the letter and spirit of that law. and then, truman tied the nonintervention doctrine to the idea of collective defense, which has been agreed upon in the active chapultepec in general, 1945, and would be formalized, as we will see, in treaty form, at the inter-american conference held in rio de janeiro in 1947. in this speech, truman said "nonintervention could not work without collective defense. it is no question the effort to achieve collective world security has been concurrent with the growing acceptance of the doctrine of nonintervention ." on with his trip. "tuesday morning. lay a wreath on the soldiers monument was lots of ceremony.

then he goes to chapultepec castle. truman's big gesture in this trip to mexico city lay with a motion for him and the mexicans, the laying of the wreath on the monument to the young heroes of what mexicans call the war with the united states of 1846-1848. truman says in his diary "i place a wreath on the monument to the cadets who stood up to old fuss and feathers until all but one was killed. he wrapped the mexican flag around himself and jumped 200 feet to his death." i should say, chapultepec castle in the 1840's was the military school. the monument is where he fell, and all the cadets lined up and the commandant and foreign minister wept.

so did the newsmen and photographers. i almost it myself. it seems the tribute really set off the visit. and there are the ninos. from his diary, "what a show, i've never seen anything like it. i never expect to again. 60,000 in the stadium and twice as many outside." truman went to dinner with the mexican president after the show , and truman says in his diary, "a grand time, music and everything. to that at 1:00 a.m. what a time." he departed mexico city at six clark in that same morning. this is a memorandum that came to truman, written in the state department sometime in 1946.

explain some of the motives of his trip to mexico city. there is a widespread feeling and latin america, it says, "that the good neighbor policy is being shelf. since roosevelt has died, the good neighbor policy has taken a secondary place in the scheme of international relations. the strong united states interest in collective defense, which developed in the context of the access threat in latin america before world war ii is not shared by all latin american nations. they are more interested in economic assistance from the united states." the memo says the latins are touchy and emotional and like to be catered to and patted on the back. the truman administration argues that take some actions that show latin americans that the u.s. cares about them. mexico was regarded as the

window into the united states by many latin american countries, so the memo advised that would be a good place to travel to, particularly in 1947, which was the 100 anniversary of the mexican war. it was time, the memo said, "to make a gesture of our friendship and sincerity" expressed at that time. so that is what president truman did. he honored the cadets, he asserted the american adherence to the good never policy -- good neighbor policy. the latin american people at the conference who heard them speak were probably disappointed by what they heard. they were less interested in collective defense than in economic assistance. second trip was to brazil, it was later in 1947.

president and mrs. truman boarding the independence for the trip to rio de janeiro. president truman is greeted by the brazilian president. he travels by motorcade to the american embassy residence in rio de janeiro. at 6:00 on the evening of september 1, the president and mrs. truman went to make a formal president to the brazilian president at the palace. truman spoke to the closing session of the inter-american conference for the maintenance of continental peace and security. this was called the rio conference, it was the morning of september 2. he praised the conference delegates for putting the commitment regarding elective defense that have been made at the conference in mexico city,

in 1945, into the permanent form of a treaty. he said "you've made it clear to any possible aggressor that the american republics are determined to support one another against attacks come attacks, and he spoke of the new concern that would make defense more important. this was the soviet threat to europe, the united states and also latin america. he explained why the marshall plan was necessary, trying to explain why the united states was paying so much attention to europe and so little to latin america. he said that latin americans needed a different type of aid program, one that was focused on long-term economic cooperation and investment. the delegates were probably disappointed by what he said.

here is resident truman welcoming the brazilian president on the uss missouri, which was in the harbor. they had lunch together in the admirals kevin --admiral's cabin. in the had a dinner at the palace that evening. in truman's second speech during this visit to brazil, it was to the brazilian congress. he spoke primarily about the closeness of the two countries come and the friendship the united states had for brazil. much more important than this speech was something that occurred elsewhere in rio de

janeiro that day. secretary of state george marshall and the foreign ministers of 18 latin american countries that same day signed the real act -- rio act. this agreement, among the united states and the latin american nations, formalized the idea of collective defense into a treaty. it made it constitutionally much stronger than it had been, subject to a simple resolution. even though the idea of collective defense, which was first raised by simone bolivar in the 1820's, and then pushed strongly by the united states in the 1930's and 1940's, had as its immediate background the

threat of the axis powers in latin america in the 1930's and during world war ii. by the time the idea was put in the form of the treaty, the threat was from a much different adversary. the cold war was probably on everyone's mind at -- on this day in rio de janeiro. truman gave a third speech while he was in brazil, and he was to the american colony, about 1500 people gathered on the grounds of the american embassy. americans who were living in brazil. truman spoke about something else beside the cold war. there were something else on his mind.

certainly the problems caused by the soviet union always concerned him, but by this time -- conservative by this time, but he never had and never would give up on his dream of a world he's under a regime of international law embodied by the united nations. that is what he spoke to the american colony about in brazil. the united nations, he said, "is the only hope we have peace in the world." the collective defense, everything going on with respect to latin america at this time were intended to supplement what was being done at the united nations. and what he was hoping -- was hoped the united nations we do -- would do. he is taken by motor launch to the uss missouri, and the trumans enjoy a leisurely trip back to the united states. third trip, again, the important visit on this third trip was to puerto rico. truman had intended on his way back from brazil to stop and puerto rico, cuba and virgin islands. but he did not do it. instead, the next time he came

to key west, he got on the and flew to san juan. more than two years before this trip to san juan, in october, 1945, truman had asked the congress to address puerto rico's aspirations regarding its future relationship with the united states. truman was troubled that puerto rico, which had become a colony of the united states at the close of the spanish-american war, had never been allowed to determine its former government. -- form of government. he asked congress to enact but -- and it legislation that would allow the poor regions to choose -- allow the puerto ricans to choose between four possibilities for their government. they could choose the right to elect their own governor with a wider measure of self-government, statehood, the independence or a dominion form of government. congress would not pass this

legislation and poor begins to this day have never had an opportunity to determine the relationship with the united states. there's going to be another referendum very soon in puerto rico. but the congress probably will not at this time or who knows when ever be willing to allow puerto ricans to determine their future. anyway. congress did just legislation that allowed puerto ricans to elect their governor, and truman is here signing that, looking very pleased to at least have gotten that out of congress. he cuts -- he gets into the airplane at the airfield and flies down to san juan. a podium is set up on the airfield in san juan, and he

gives a speech. he tells the puerto ricans he has been interested in puerto rico for many years. he says, i have said to the congress of all times, and i repeated here, "puerto rican people should have the right determine for themselves puerto rico's political relationship to the united states." he gets in the car with the poor -- the puerto rican governor and they take a tour of san juan and have a good time. this is a photograph annotated to show what happened on november 1, 1950. the harm that puerto rico's problematic status as a colony of the united states could cause in the united states competition -- confrontation with the soviet union was demonstrated on november 1, 1970. truman is living in blair house, white house is being renovated, and the early afternoon, to puerto rican extremists come from different directions, they come together on blair house and opened fire on the white house

police. the white house police fireback. three of the police are down. one of the puerto rico the kill. truman rushes to an upstairs window and looks out and says, "what is going on out there?" the white house police say, get back inside the building, what are you doing? the week later, there was a funeral for the white house policeman who was killed in a shootout. truman fought back tears as he said to others at the funeral, "you cannot understand how a man feels when somebody else dies for him." two days prior to the assassination attempt on truman's life, nationalism puerto rico had attended to kill the governor, and armed protest led by nationalist broke out

throughout the item -- the island. 20 people were killed -- 28 people were killed. truman recognized puerto rico was a problem for the united states. it was a colony at a time when empires were falling and colonies were becoming independent. was probably more latin american than american. i tell you that line with the approval of my wife, who is puerto rican. i asked her if it sounded all right, and she said it was probably ok. puerto rico might again to identify as some latin american countries are beginning to do, with newly independent countries thinking of themselves as a third world. puerto rican people were not represented in congress, cannot vote for the president, had never been allowed to vote on the relationship to the united states or their form of government. given the circumstances, there was a danger that some puerto rican nationalists might become communists in look to the soviet union for help.

there was one regular inter-american conference, only one during truman's presidency, in columbia in 1948. this was the pan-american voting in washington, d.c., the headquarters of the organization of american states. the delegates at the open top conference negotiated --the colombian conference negotiated. the charter the negotiated, negotiated during truman's administration, completed the inter-american project that had begun by simon bolivar and started at the first conference in 1890. the organization of american states formalized the association of the states participating in the inter-american project. the charter included two ideas that have been talked about in

past resolutions at several of the conferences. also one of them have been passed in reform. article 15 states, no states or group of states has the right to intervene in the internal or external affairs of any other state. not intervention -- nonintervention. six articles later, article 24 presents the idea of collective defense. an act of aggression against any american state will be regarded as an act of aggression against all the other american states. the classification of these two principles, nonintervention and collective defense, together with the election by treaty of the organization of american states, are probably the central achievements of the inter-american project. but the latin american states have made very clear they wanted economic aid from the united

states, a marshall plan for america. what did the united states to the young telling the latin americans that foreign investment would have to build their economy? truman did one more thing. probably the last important act that shows his personal leadership in latin american policy. inaugural address, january, 1949. there he is. truman announced a new foreign aid program. this grew out of the state department experience with

foreign aid in latin america. it was based not on the transfer of money or goods from the united states to latin america, but instead on technical assistance provided by american experts. truman was excited about this idea. in his speech, he presented what he called a program for peace and freedom. there were four elements in this program. point four is what it came to be called. it grew out of a decades long discourse among experts, administrators, planners and government, universities and foundations, and other ngo's about how to transform traditional societies in underdeveloped regions of the world into modern societies. under the point four program,

these ideas were carried over into the problem of dealing with countries emerging from the disintegrating european and japanese into priors -- empires, as well as those in latin america. truman elite that the program of technical assistance would provide a liberal, democratic alternative to the soviet union's authoritarian techniques. it was an exciting idea, but probably not very good news for latin america. the point four program was dramatically underfunded, but it was about all that latin america got from the united states in terms of economic aid. they never got there marshall plan -- their marshall plan. president truman's personal leadership of the american policy diminishes once his second term begins. he got very involved with passages domestic program in 1949, 1950. europe took a lot of time and attention, and in the korean war broke out and he probably woke up every day with korea in his mind and lived true that all his days.

something important was happening during these years in the state department. during world war ii, and the years immediately following the war, state department leaders by and large felt optimistic about the spread of liberal democracy in latin america and the formatted -- formulated policies to encourage it. but by 1950, democracy was in retreat in latin america. venezuela and peru had experienced military takeovers. columbia and cuba were in trouble. state department officials have become pessimistic about latin america and less willing than before to try to take actions to encourage the development of the credit governments -- democratic government, which was made especially difficult by the idea of not intervention. if a dictator came to power in a latin american country, the united states, out by the

doctrine of nonintervention, could do nothing. except learn to live with the dictator and make the most of it. but the state department officials, with the pessimistic feeling that they had about latin america, they were worried the dictatorships would not agree with conditions of the countries that have them, and that instability would encourage the spread of communism. so the state department begins to worry more and more about communism, which they see as the latest of all the threats that had come from your in the past -- from europe in the past. they presented the same problem. how do you have this idea coming -- how do you prevent this idea coming from abroad, changing the character of latin america? in march and april of 1950, two senior state department officials expressed views which

demonstrated this new pessimism about latin america. one was george tenet, famous as the formulator of the containment idea. in early 1950, kennan who is regarded as retired from activities in the state department, and the secretary of state wanted to send him on a trip. he selected latin america and went all over the continent. he did not like -- he submitted a memorandum to the secretary of state in 1950 -- he did not like what he saw in latin america. he said a shadow of helplessness and impotence falls over most of the latin american world. he said anti-american feeling was present everywhere. this increased the threat posed to united states by communist activity.

what the idea was, if war between the united states and soviet union for excel, civil war, he thought, would probably break out in several latin american countries. the united states would be forced to take violent action to maintain supplies of raw materials, which the united states was receiving from latin america, and retain important not to facilities. kennan wrote in his memorandum that the united states cannot be complacent about these communist activities. what was the united states to do in view of the nonintervention doctrine? he looked at the monroe doctrine and said the monroe doctrine and never prohibited united states

from defending itself from foreign ideologies such as communism if it was introduced and let america. the nonintervention doctrine he said, was a problem. but what the united states had to do because of that, was to develop what he called new ways of exercising its power in latin america. he said "we should apply ourselves to the liberation of techniques of course of measures that can impress other governments with the dangers of antagonizing us with the

toleration of anti-american activities, and would yet not be susceptible to rotation by their enemies -- susceptible to exportation by their enemies through illicit means of pressure." so develop these techniques of course if measures -- coersive measures that would allow the united states to get its way, but not in ways that could be identified as old-fashioned, imperialistic intervention. and kennan said at the conclusion of the memorandum, "the u.s. is more concerned to be respected than liked or understood." he sends this to washington, secretary of state reads it and passes it on to the secretary of inter-american affairs, edward g miller. miller is appalled by the insensitivity of the report and persuaded the secretary of state to block it out. nobody read it. about a month later, a month after kennan had submitted the report, edward miller gave a speech which outlined ideas in u.s. policy in the america which sounded something like kennan. he put forth a reinterpretation of the monroe doctrine, which came to be known as the miller doctrine. he said the monroe doctrine was intended to protect the united states and other states of the americas from europe's political system.

whether it be the holy alliance or the communist manifesto. miller argued that the monroe doctrine allowed for defense of the americas, that he was to be done not by old-fashioned u.s. imperialistic intervention, but through the inter-american community, the collective defense agreement. the american nations together would uphold the principles of the monroe doctrine. the nonintervention doctrine, he said, does not deny the inter-american immunity the right to defend itself, but it would be a collective undertaking. then he says, in language that confuses somewhat, "such a

collective undertaking, so far from representing intervention, is an alternative intervention. it is the corollary of nonintervention." all right. now miller did not say what he would do if the inter-american community did not see things the way the united states did with respect to the communist threat. the term debt miller used about the threat was "clandestine communist penetration." this might be hard to identify. other american states might not feel the way the united states felt about what was happening. but what happens then? miller did not inform us what would happen. kennan offered some suggestions, you might remember. moving on very quickly. very quickly. just imagine quickly, nsc 562, which was titled "united states

as he toured military collaboration." another way the united states could protect its influence was through military assistance, and that is what nsc 562 attempted to define, a way for the american military to become involved in the military is establishments of the latin american republics. the united states wanted to avoid ever again having to divert its resources to defend latin america as it did in world war ii. the assistance described was in four areas, military training and that train missions in latin american countries, training for latin american officers in the

united states, arrangements for the joint planning of hemispheric defense, and the transfer of military equipment from the united states to latin american countries. this report clearly placed u.s. military assistance to latin america in a cold war context. because what was being foreseen was the possibility of war breaking out between the united states and soviet union, and then there is disorder in latin america, united states has to become involved in order to protect the materials that it is getting from latin america, the strategic materials, and also the mid to late -- military facilities. nsc 562 advised that it is important that every ever be made to develop an effective inter-american military collaboration in time of peace to ensure collective hemispheric defense immediately upon the outbreak of war.

i'm going to skip this one so we can get to the legacy. very quickly. i want to hazard, and it is a personal hazarding, of a description of the legacy that president truman left behind with respect to u.s. policies toward latin america. first of all, from explicitly affirmed the legacy which he had received when he became president. non-interventionism together with interventionism. pan-americanism and the good neighbor policy. second, he completed the inter-american project by formalizing by treaty the principles of nonintervention and collective defense and the permanent organization of the american states. truman's foreign and domestic

defense policies confirmed and institutionalized in peacetime the shift of u.s. policy away from the western hemisphere and toward europe and asia. these things had occurred during world war ii. president truman confirmed the shift in peacetime. as a result, u.s. policy toward let america was viewed in the context of u.s. policy toward europe and asia. . truman -- next thing. he redefined the monroe doctrine .

the nonintervention principle according to the new interpretation was tied to the inter-american agreement on collective defense. non-interventionism on the part of the united states was possible under the conditions of the postwar world only if the american nations met in a communist threat in the americas by collective action. collective intervention made u.s. intervention unnecessary. next. his defense policies along with his positions on non-interventionism and collective defense create conditions in which the message of: version -- of coersion, might be employed by the united states and latin america. next. as part of inter-american defense, he greatly increase the collaboration of the u.s.

military and the militaries of the latin american states, which probably increased u.s. influence in latin america. u.s. economic and military aid was given primarily to europe and asia during women's presidency. truman and his advisers believed that latin american economic health should be achieved through foreign investment. and the last. the focus of u.s. foreign defense policies on europe and asia, combined with the almost exclusive focus of u.s. aid programs in those regions caused some latin americans to feel their countries had more in common with the newly independent european colonies than with other undeveloped countries -- and with other undeveloped countries than with the united states. the united states sometimes seemed an enemy to their national interests and aspirations. so this is the legacy that president truman left with respect to latin america. thank you very much. [applause]

mary lou: we have times for questions. if you have a question, he stepped to the microphone and say who you are and where you are from.