ABSTRACT
One element in the global approach is the strategic perspective, which treats events in Latin America as connected to the struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union. This chapter examines two cases that illustrate the strategic perspective: Castro's Cuba and Allende's Chile. The crisis developed in October 1962, when US officials discovered that the USSR was in the process of installing, in Cuba, missiles with the capability of delivering nuclear warheads to the United States and Latin America. Cuba's place in the US psyche probably far exceeds its actual importance, but the island has become such a headache for Washington that it cannot be treated as merely a Latin American problem. Allende's accession to power came about in spite of considerable efforts by US business and government to prevent it. The purpose of reviewing the internal economic and political situation in Chile lies in its relationship to US policy.
