David F. Schmitz - Thank God Theyre on Our Side: The United States and Right-Wing Dictatorships, 1921-1965

I thank all of the archivists and librarians at the various presidential libraries and archives with whom I worked to complete this book for their professional assistance, aid, and advice. The staff at Penrose Library at Whitman College warrants a special thanks for their assistance.

Once again, Lewis Bateman, Executive Editor at the University of North Carolina Press, proved to be an ideal editor, providing expert advice and support throughout the process. I also thank Ron Maner and Trudie Calvert for their editorial assistance.

Whitman College provided generous travel grants to presidential libraries and archives, Abshire Awards for student research assistance, and a sabbatical leave to complete the writing of the book. The Abshire Awards provided me with three excellent student assistants, Aaron Forsberg, Jeff Holifield, and Rob Neal. Aaron, who is now an excellent young scholar of American economic diplomacy, also read Chapter 5 and provided valuable comments on Eisenhowers policy. Other students who served expertly as research assistants were Doug Elliot, Natalie Fousekis, Stephen McHale, and Kristin Relyea. Chris Lenhart and Alex Rolfe assisted me with the bibliography. Amy Portwood deserves special mention. She provided invaluable last-minute assistance as a research intern during the summer of 1997. Moreover, she read the entire manuscript and made editorial and substantive recommendations that improved the book.

Rich and Carla Scudellari opened their home in Saratoga, California, to me numerous times on research trips to Stanford University and have always willingly listened to me discuss my work. My former students David Wickwire and Melissa Mehlhoff Wickwire were gracious hosts in Austin during my visits to the Johnson Library, as were Mark Buries and Jessica Harris Buries in Washington, D.C., during a visit to the National Archives.

At Whitman, my colleagues provide as rewarding an environment as a teacher and scholar could want. I particularly thank David Deal and Tom Edwards for their consistent encouragement of my work and Fred Breit and Tim Kaufman-Osborn for their friendship, advice, and criticisms. Shannon Callister provided enormous last-minute assistance with the computer that saved me from numerous problems.

I was fortunate to spend the 199798 academic year at St. Lawrence University as the Vilas Professor of American History. I thank Dean Thomas Coburn and David Lloyd for their support. My colleague in American history Liz Regosin read the conclusion and provided excellent overall advice. She and Jean Williams made my year in Canton, New York, memorable, and they are the best of friends. I also thank the inner sanctum of students at St. Lawrence, particularly Matt Fero, Jonas Hart, Caitlin McAndrews, and Tom ONeil.

Students in my spring 1995 Seminar in American Foreign Policy were the first to read a draft of the final manuscript. Amy Alger, Audrey Anderson, Thomas Armitage, Christopher Lenhart, Ryan McFarland, Kelly Meagher, Richard Mullen, Robert Neal, Huy Nguyen, Chris Phillippi, Tami Shallbetter, and Robert Simison thoughtfully read the book, listened to me work out my ideas, and stimulated new ideas with their valuable feedback. Danielle Garbe contributed valuable help by proofreading a next-to-final draft.

Many scholars provided generous assistance throughout the writing of this book. David Broscious provided me with a citation for the Truman administrations evolving Cold War policy that I could not locate. Joel Blatts and Robert McMahons comments on two different papers I delivered early in this project helped me immensely at that critical stage. Bob McMahons continued interest in the project, encouragement, and advice helped make this a better book. Michael Hunt read an early draft of the manuscript and provided excellent comments and suggestions for expanding the scope of the work. His encouragement made this a more ambitious project than I originally intended, and for that I am grateful. Carolyn Eisenberg, Tom Knock, and Doug Little all spent much time discussing my ideas with me, providing useful criticisms, ideas, and support along the way. In addition, Tom Knock and Doug Little read an earlier draft of the manuscript. Chris Jespersen, Bill Walker, and Paul Hoornbeek read the final manuscript and provided excellent suggestions for revisions, additions, and deletions. Michael Krenn was generous to a fault. He did double duty, reading some early chapters and then the completed manuscript. In addition, he directed me to some critical documents on the Truman administration. They are all true friends. A special thanks, as always, goes to Lloyd Gardner for his support and advice over the years and on this project. He continues to provide a model for scholarship, professionalism, and friendship.

The support of my family, and especially my mother, is immeasurable. I have not asked them to read, yet, any of this work, but they have all contributed to it in numerous ways. I especially thank my sister Terry and my brother-in-law Kevin for their hospitality every time I visit home. My wonderful children, Nicole and Kincaid, are a constant source of joy, inspiration, and love. Most of all, I thank Sarah Blattler. She made numerous sacrifices to make this book possible and provided encouragement and support throughout. For all that was and, more important, for all still to come, I dedicate this book to her.

F. SCOTT FITZGERALD, The Great Gatsby

Our Sons of Bitches

Neither the makers nor the critics of American foreign policy in the twentieth century have resolved the conflict between the desire to encourage democracy abroad and the need to protect American interests. Promoting human rights and democracy demands a toleration of instability and change in regions considered crucial to American business or defense, often leaving no clear choice between conscience and self-interest and making strong, stable right-wing dictators attractive to policymakers. This book examines American policy toward right-wing dictators and why the United States has supported such regimes despite its avowed commitment to liberalism and democracy internationally. Patience with the world is a quality that is in short supply in the White House and State Department, and the demand for order and stability underlies the drive for quick solutions to problems. Although the United States is philosophically dedicated to supporting democracies and human rights abroad, makers of foreign policy have often chosen instead to support right-wing autocracies as a defense against democratic or left-wing movements that appeared either unstable or prone to communist ideology. The often quoted apocryphal statement by Franklin D. Roosevelt concerning Anastasio Somoza Garca