From anticommunism to antinationalism:: The presidency of Eisenhower and authoritarian direction in 1950s Latin America

This article offers an explanation of the reasons that led Dwight Eisenhower's Republican Administration (1953-1961) to develop support policies towards the Latin American authoritarian regimes in the 1950's. We think that the two previous Democrat Presidencies - those of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry Truman - had supported the social and political reform projects taken up by a new nationalist elite in charge in Latin America since the twenties. Our main hypothesis is that in the fifties, within an international context designed by Moscow's "Doctrine of Competitive Coexistence", Whashington's perception changed to considering nationalist policies as potential instruments of the Soviet Union's expansive strategies in developing areas. The outcome in Latin America was the break off of US' former compromise with the nationalist policies and the former's subsequent alignment with the antidemocratic tendencies in the continent