ABSTRACT
The United States (US) military assistance programs begun after World War II seem to be relatively easy to understand in terms of the interdependent world they were established to support. The US, fearing for the safety of the Free World, set out to supply and train the armed forces of its allies. The challenges to an interdependent world in Latin America forced US officials to consider methods by which they could simultaneously construct the framework of interdependence and contain the forces working against it. Military assistance was one answer they came up with. To place US military assistance to Latin America in its proper perspective, it will be useful to provide a brief analysis of the program’s development. In many ways, the discussions by US officials of internal stability, military aid, dictatorships, and the “scope” of “normal political change” in Latin America paralleled their analysis of what was going on in Honduras during roughly that same period.
