ABSTRACT
G iven the domination of the United States over its affairs and the Soviet Union’s inability to project its power beyond its immediate neighbours, Central and South America remained in the 1940s rather distant from the
issues that lay at the heart of the East-West division. By the early 1980s, however, President Ronald Reagan was quoting the Truman Doctrine as he exhorted Congress to back his crusade against communism in Central America. Thus while direct Soviet involvement outside of the island of Cuba remained limited, Latin America gradually claimed a place as one of the hottest battlegrounds of the Cold War.
