In this excellent synthesis, Vanni Pettinà, a professor at the Colegio de México and historian of US-Cuban relations, advances a methodological argument backed by empirical case studies published over two decades. Pettinà convincingly argues that the Cold War in Latin America should be studied as an interconnected whole, rather than through the discrete lenses of national case studies, as has often been the case. The political, social, and economic stresses rooted in Cold War geopolitics were shared throughout Latin America, from Mexico to Argentina. The historiography should reflect this reality.
The book begins with an extensive critical review of the literature. Pettinà argues that the historiography on Latin America demonstrates that the region had its own dynamics, independent of outside influences, and that local actions thus deserve study in their own right. By comparing the particulars, we get a better sense of what was universal in the Latin American Cold War experience. The book is mainly concerned with political actors, but one can see how cultural and social histories of the Cold War could benefit from the tools of comparative and transnational history.
The opening chapter Latin Americanizes Cold War historiography. Whatever their methodological and political differences, orthodox, revisionist, and postrevisionist US diplomatic historians have paid little heed to developments south of the border. Pettinà places this work alongside the recent scholarship produced in Latin America, the United States, and the United Kingdom, especially Fazio Vengoa's work on Latin American cultural relations with the USSR, Roberto García Ferreira's research on state terrorism in Uruguay and Guatemala, Tanya Harmer's study showing that Allende crafted an independent diplomatic agenda, and Patrick Iber's monograph on left-wing cultural producers and diplomats, and how they formed a transnational network of ideas. Each chapter begins with a summary of how US diplomatic historians have written on the topic, followed by a rich analysis of how Latin American case studies make us rethink the issue.
After a chapter that chronicles the descent from a brief democratic opening after World War II to the rise of anticommunism in the late 1940s, Pettinà summarizes some of the latest research on the Cuban Revolution. The book argues that the revolution unfolded through a series of contingencies in which improvisation took precedence over ideology. Radical nationalism mixed with a pragmatic Marxism. Cuban Communists were able to take control of the revolution because they were the best organized of the political dissidents, but they could not impose their views because they were in the minority. There are now a number of social histories that enlarge this argument based on close studies of civil society; this section would have been improved with their inclusion.
The author instead draws on diplomatic history to show how Cuba staked its own ground in struggles between the major powers, including China. Part of Cuba's independence is evidenced in its assistance to guerrilla groups throughout the region, a policy at times frowned upon by the Soviet Union. The author details the links between the Cuban government and revolutionary groups in the region. The revolution inspired a generation of young activists throughout Latin America. The historiography, led by Eric Zolov among others, has grouped this under the New Left, a subfield that promises to grow. The burgeoning historiography on the New Left should offer more examples of the hemispheric approach championed by Pettinà.
The remainder of the volume covers state terrorism in South and Central America, beginning in the mid 1960s. Two major political developments emerged during this period, the rise of guerilla warfare and the repressive reaction taken by governments through the National Security Doctrine, which called for the suspension of civil liberties as a measure to aid in the war against communism. Struggles between guerrillas and militaries took place throughout Latin America. In some places, such as Argentina, guerillas emerged in cities, while the countryside became the locus of armed struggle in Central America.
By the 1970s, economic policies that liberalized land tenure laws had reduced the power of the landholding class, while there emerged a civil society that demanded enfranchisement. The United States along with popular sectors and segments of the business elite, especially those tied to industry and commerce, saw value in modernization from above, but no one anticipated the antagonisms that would arise. The military backed the landholding and commercial elite and protracted civil wars ensued in Central America.
The Nicaraguan Revolution benefitted from a much less cohesive ruling class. Unlike El Salvador's elite, which concentrated on coffee, Nicaraguan landholders had diversified their investments to include bananas and wood. As a result, Somoza did not have a united ruling class to defend him. Moreover, Somoza's dictatorship proved ineffective at modernizing the economy from above. In Nicaragua, civil society grew through Somoza-style modernization but so too did civil demands. The Sandinistas were a by-product of an emboldened civil society that had been excluded.
Pettinà's study will prove valuable as a primer for graduate students and researchers. Each chapter grounds the reader in the latest arguments, which are sourced in generous endnotes. The volume suffers mostly from an insufficient consideration of the social histories that have been published in the last decade on the topic. There have a number of recent studies on everything from sexual repression in Brazil and Cuba to racial politics in Central America. Even on the topics covered, I would have liked a much richer discussion on El Salvador and Central America in general. Nevertheless, this is a valuable synthesis that helps us think about how to write about the region as a whole, an approach that makes sense but that is hard to pull off.
