ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with an analysis of increasing Japanese economic links with Latin America that were breaking down the previous isolation of Latin America from the Western Pacific Basin. Along the long eastern rim of the Pacific Basin after the Second World War the Latin American republics were relatively peaceful under their mixture of democratic, single party and military governments. In 1954 the Eisenhower administration demonstrated its commitment to fight the Cold War in Latin America, especially in the Central American region that was strategically close to the US, by supporting the overthrow of the government of Guatemala. In the American Senate hearings on the subject, which were controlled by the majority Democratic Party, Richard Helms insisted that the Central Intelligence Agency deliberately distanced itself in 1973 from the military in order to avoid any hint of involvement in a coup.
