38. Intelligence Memorandum No. 0783/751
[Omitted here are a title page and a warning notice page.]
Latin America’s Changing Foreign Relations
Summary
A combination of forces has moved Latin America away from a generally passive view of world affairs toward an assertive, sometimes aggressive, activism abroad. Diminishing commonality of interests with the U.S. has produced a centrifugal effect in Latin foreign policy, which traditionally followed the U.S. lead. The relaxation of east-west tension and the subsequent turn to a north-south axis of confrontation in the UN and other international forums have significantly changed Latin American behavior in these political arenas and drawn the region toward a third-world viewpoint. The global impact of OPEC’s oil politics has provided a new, probably unrealistic model for bloc action to achieve mutual national goals. All of these factors have stimulated reassessment of the constraints on and possibilities for activities overseas, with the result that Latin American governments now engage in international processes from which they previously felt excluded. They have emerged as actors rather than observers on the international scene.
This kind of response to external factors might not have occurred a decade ago. Latin America’s “coming out” on the international stage has been possible largely because of a greatly altered political atmosphere and remarkably changed social and economic conditions in the hemisphere.
[Omitted here is the body of the memorandum, including sections entitled, “Latin America’s New Politics,” “The U.S. Angle,” “Third Worldism,” “Regionalism,” “Particular Viewpoints,” and “Continuing Reappraisal.”]
-
Summary: This memorandum analyzed the forces propelling Latin American nations towards a more assertive, independent stance in world affairs.
Source: Central Intelligence Agency, [text not declassified] Files, Job 79T00865A, Box 26, Folder 27. Confidential. All brackets are in the original except those indicating text omitted by the editors. Colby transmitted this memorandum to Ford under a January 2, 1976, covering letter, on which Ford wrote, “Very helpful. GRF.” (Ford Library, National Security Adviser, NSC Latin American Affairs Staff Files, Box 10, Latin America)
↩