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The 1960s: A Decade of Revolution

by Kenneth Finlayson

Photo collage by D. Telles14 Veritas

Mao Zedong (R) with Associated Press correspondent John Roderick in Yenang China, 1946. Mao’s Peoples Republic of China broke with the Soviet Union in the 1960s, resulting in two Communist spheres of influence in the world.

The Berlin Wall divided East and West Berlin for 28 years. Construction by the German Democratic Republic began on 13 August 1961. The Wall collapsed on 9 November 1989 to pave the way for German reunification.

In the 1960s, cracks began to appear in the monolithic Soviet bloc when Alexander Dubček presented a less repressive regime in Czechoslovakia. The “Prague Spring” was ruthlessly suppressed by the Soviet Army in 1968.

decade of the 1960s witnessed profoundchange in the established world order. The

post-WWIIglobalconfigurationwasessentiallybi-polar,withtheUnitedStates-ledWestalignedagainsttheSoviet-dominatedEast.Inthe1960s,thissplitalongideologicaland economic lines divided theworld into five centersofpower:theSovietUnionanditssatellites;CommunistChinaandSoutheastAsia;EuropeandtheUnitedStates;Africa;andLatinAmerica.Thisarticlewilllookbrieflyat each of these regions and the general United Statesforeignpolicystrategyforeach.TheemphasiswillbeonLatinAmerica,inparticularBolivia,andeventssuchasCuban-instigatedinsurgencies,affectingU.S.engagementin the southern hemisphere. In LatinAmerica, Cuban-sponsored revolutionary fervor was a major factor indeterminingtheU.S.strategy.TheAlliedpowersdeterminedattheendofWorldWarII

theSecurityCouncil’spermanentmembershipinthenewlyformed United Nations (Chiang K’ai Shek’s NationalistChina,notCommunistChina,heldapermanentseat).ThepowerblocsoftheFiftiesbegantoerodeintheSixties.ItwastheSovietUnionthatfacedoffagainsttheWestintheColdWar,andinstigatedsuchprovocationsastheerectionoftheBerlinWall.1In the immediate post-War period, U.S. nuclear

superioritycausedtheSovietUniontoforciblyintegratethe countries of EasternEurope into theWarsawPactas a buffer and a counter to NATO.2 As the Sovietsachieved nuclear parity with the United States, the

The

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Soviet Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev and U.S. President John F. Kennedy in Vienna, Austria, on 4 June 1961. After the Bay of Pigs fiasco, Khrushchev tried to intimidate the young president by sending nuclear weapons and modern armaments to Cuba.

fearof aglobalnuclearwarrecededandtheEasternbloccountries sought relief fromrepressive Soviet control.In the Sixties, the SovietBlocbegantoshowsignsofdisintegration. Yugoslavia,Albania,andCzechoslovakiaall rebelled against Russianrule.TheSovietUnion,whilemaintainingcontrolover itsEastern European satellites,worked diligently to fosterthe spread of Communismabroad as it had in the 1950s. In his address to the UnitedNations GeneralAssembly in June 1960,NikitaKhrushchevassertedthe Soviet Union’s supportto “Just Wars of NationalLiberation.”3 Containmentof Communism was thecornerstone of the UnitedStatesandEuropeanstrategy.In the post-War era,

WesternEuropewasdividedover the best approach tomeettheSovietthreatandonthe question of how to dealwith the divided Germany.4 The Marshall Plan pouredbillions of U.S. dollars intoEurope and Japan to putthe war-torn nations backon their feet. Protected byNATO forces and reinforcedby the nuclear arsenals ofthe West, the governments

ofWesternEuropewerepopularly electeddemocraciesor constitutional monarchies. The fundamental issuefacing the Europeanswas their political and economicalignmentinresponsetotheSovietthreat.The nations of Europe did align in 1949 under the

North Atlantic Treaty Organization, (NATO), but thecohesivenatureofthealliancewasdisruptedwhenFrancewithdrewin1966.Inspiteofthis,thenationsofWesternEuroperemainedstableandcommittedtoopposingtheSoviets.TherewasagenuinedesiretoadvanceEuropeaneconomicprogressandareluctancetoseethespreadofnuclearweapons.5 Outside of Europe, notably inAsiaandAfrica,thingswerefarfromstable.In the formerFrenchcolonialholdings in Indochina,

Communist North Vietnam under Ho Chi Minh waswagingawaragainsttheU.S.-backedSouthVietnamesegovernment. Communist insurgencies threatenedneighboringLaosandCambodia,withthelattereventuallyfallingtoPolPot’sKhmerRouge.TheUnitedStateswas

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WarsofNationalLiberation“It is our duty to support the sacred struggle of the oppressed peoples and their

just anti-imperialist wars of national liberation.” Nikita S. Khrushchev, June 19601

Post–World War II Wars of National Liberation are defined as thoseconflicts foughtby indigenousmilitarygroupsagainstan imperialpowerin the name of self-determination. The purpose is the violent pursuit ofpolitical change; to create a new nation state grounded in some kind ofculturalcommunity.Overwhelminglybasedonguerrillawarfare,WarsofNationalLiberationwerethepredominantformofconflictinthe1960s.AnexampletodaywouldbeChechnya,wheretheMuslimChechensarefightingforindependencefromRussia. Map by D. Telles.

Wars of National Liberation in the 1960s:

Spain AngolaCongoAfghanistanEthiopiaMozambiqueNamibia

El SalvadorArgentinaColombiaBoliviaVenezuelaChileGuatemalaPeru

IndonesiaThailandBurma

Endnotes1 WalterDarnellJacobs,“SovietViewsofWarsofNationalLiberation,”Military Review, October1967,61.2 DanielMoran, Wars of National Liberation (NewYork,NY:HarperCollins,2006)24.

Map by D. Telles.

engagedinasteadilyescalatingconflictinVietnam.ThiscametodominateAmericanforeignpolicyandtheU.S.militaryandbecamethefocalpointofdomesticunrestinAmerica throughout the1960s.While theUnitedStateswasdecisivelyengagedinAsiainthe1960s,theinterestinAfricawasminimal.The decade of the 1960s brought more political

change to the African continent than anywhere in theworld.In1959therewere9sovereignnationsinAfrica.European colonial territories comprised the remainderthecontinent.Inoneyearthenumberofnewsovereigncountriesjumpedto27andcontinuedtogrowastheoldimperialpowerswithdrewfromthecontinentintheface

ofwidespreadAfrican independencemovements.6 Thetransitiontoindependencewasoftenrocky,andmanyofthe newnations fell under dictators ormilitary juntas,reducing U.S. interest in Africa.7 This was in sharpcontrasttoAmerica’sroleinLatinAmerica.TwodecadesofU.S.preoccupationwithEuropeandAsiacreatedanimbalance in American policy towards Latin AmericathattheUnitedStatesbegantorectifyinthe1960s.WhenSecretaryofStateDeanM.Ruskasked,“Who

speaks for Europe?” he was articulating a problemendemic to the highest levels of government, thetendency to generalize and simplifywhen formulatingforeign policy.8 Latin America had a long history of

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• A Soviet missile shoots down an American Lockheed U2 spy plane; the pilot Francis Gary Powers is captured.• Belgian forces leave the Congo.

1967

1960

1961

1962

1963

1964

19651966

1960 -1967 International Scene

• Berlin Wall goes up. • Bay of Pigs Invasion. • Union of South Africa leaves British Commonwealth. • Civil War in Congo.• Alliance For Progress

• Ceasefire after Chinese capture Bomdila, India. • Algeria became independent of French rule. • Cuban Missile Crisis.

• United States President John F. Kennedy assassinated. • Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

• PLO is founded in Palestine. • Khrushchev is deposed in Soviet Union. • Greek-Turkish Cypriot War begins. • Gulf of Tonkin Bay Resolution.

• Southern Rhodesia declares independence from Britain. • Winston Churchill dies.

• China’s Cultural Revolution begins. • President Nkrumah of Ghana overthrown by army. • France withdraws from NATO.

• Civil War in Nigeria. • Arab-Israeli Six-Day War. • Anti-war Demostrations in United States. • Che Guevara killed in Bolivia.

Timeline by L. Goddard.

Ho Chi Minh was the Communist revolutionary who founded the Viet Minh independence movement in Vietnam during World War II. He was Prime Minister and then the President of the People’s Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) until his death in 1969. He waged war against the Japanese, then the French until 1954, then against the United States and South Vietnam until his death in 1969.

regional cooperation. The Organization of AmericanStates (OAS), founded in 1948was one of the oldest ofthe regional alliances. Castro’s successful CommunistrevolutioninCubathrewshockwavesthroughoutLatinAmerica, and U.S. foreign policy became predicatedon preventing the further spread of Cuban-sponsoredrevolution.9 The Cuban Missile Crisis galvanized thenations of the OAS to action; the range of the Sovietnuclearmissilesthreatenedtheentireregion.TheUnitedStatesforeignpolicyinthe1960stowardsLatinAmericareflectedamistakenideathatthereexistedahemisphericPan-Americanmovement.10WhiletheUnitedStatestriedtodevelopa coherent, ”one-sizefits all”policy, eachof

thenationsinLatinAmericatriedtogettheU.S.totreatthemasaspecialcase.11 PresidentJohnF.KennedycalledLatinAmerica“the

mostcriticalareaintheworld,”astrongindicatoroftheprioritythatheplacedontheregion.12U.S.militaryandeconomic aid steadily increased in the 1960s. By 1967,over $6 billion in economic aid from theUnited StatesAgencyforInternationalDevelopment(USAID)and$1.7billionvia theMilitaryAssistanceProgram(MAP)hadbeendistributedinLatinAmerica.13Inadditiontofunds,Kennedy’snewly formedPeaceCorpsdispatchedsome16,000workerstoLatinAmericabetween1962and1967,to conduct civic action projects, improve agriculturalpractices,andhelpeducatethelocalpopulations.14 ButLatinAmericawasnotahomogenousregion;itcontainedwidely diverse countries and cultures, with greatlyvaryingdegrees of development. In the 1960s, politicalinstabilityaffectedmanycountriesintheregion.In 1962, the nations of Latin America were

predominatelymulti-partydemocracies.By1967,militaryjuntaswereincontrolinBrazil,Argentina,Peru,Bolivia,andParaguayaswellasseveralCentralAmericannations.The U.S. tended to support the juntas as a bulwarkagainst Cuban-inspired communist revolutions. Theideological initiative theU.S. enjoyed at the beginningof the decade as the promoter of democracy was lostin subsequent years by its support of non-democraticregimes.15 The presence of Fidel Castro’s Communist

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Timeline by L. Goddard.

“the most critical area in the world” — President John F. Kennedy

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U.S. Economic Assistancebillions of 2005 $US

U.S. economic assistance to Latin America reflected President John F. Kennedy’s belief that the region was “the most critical in the world.” This made Latin America the second largest recipient of U.S. aid after Asia.

President John F. Kennedy signs the Charter of Punta del Este in August 1961. The Charter created the Alliance for Progress, Kennedy’s idea for improving economic development in Latin America and countering the spread of Communist Cuban influence in the region.

President John F. Kennedy greets the first Peace Corps volunteers in Washington, DC, 28 August 1961. The Peace Corps was his initiative and between 1962 and 1967, 16,000 volunteers were sent to Latin America.

Cuba encouraged many of the revolutionaries in theregiontofomentunrest.PresidentKennedysaid,“Thosewhomakepeaceful revolution impossiblemakeviolentrevolution inevitable.”16 The revolutionarymovementsin Latin America had several well-defined objectives:popularparticipationingovernment;landreforminthebreak-up of the old feudal estates called the latifundias; thedestructionoftherulingoligarchiesthatmaintainedthem; and themainobjective, economicdevelopment.17 ButunlikeEuropeandJapan,therewasnoMarshallPlanequivalentforLatinAmerica.TheU.S.movedtoalleviatetheirdeficiencieswiththeAllianceforProgress(AFP).TheAllianceforProgresswasstructuredtoaddress

these objectives andprovide for security in the region.FormalizedinAugust1961,bytheCharterofPuntadelEste,the20signatorynationsmappedoutthevisionfortheAllianceforProgressthatfocusedonagrarianreformand raising the standard of living in Latin America.18 TheAlliancewasfoundedastheresponsetotheCubanthreat to incite revolution.19 President Kennedy calledfor“avastcooperativeeffort,unparalleledinmagnitudeandnobility, to satisfy thebasicneed forhomes,work,andland,forhealthandschools.”20TheAFPestablishedprinciples for hemispheric cooperation and changedthe fundamental structures of finance and economicdevelopment.21But,asthedecadeworeon,theAllianceforProgressbegantoloseitseffectiveness.TheAFPgraduallybecamemoreaboutsocialreform

thaneconomicprogress.Itfounderedontheresistanceofthelandedelitestoculturalchangeandthenationalisticsentiments of the different countries.22 Foreign affairsanalystPhilipW.Quiggnoted,“WiththeexceptionoftheMiddleEast,LatinAmerica is themostpoliticizedareawhich has not evolved an adequate tradition of publicserviceorpoliticalresponsibility.” 23Thisculturalmindsetworked to the detriment of the reform programs. OnebrightspotwasBolivia,whichby1967hadreceivedmorethan$262millionineconomicandmilitaryaidfromtheU.S. There theAFP-sponsoredprograms, notably landreform,wereadeterrenttoCuban-sponsoredrevolution.

Land reform in Bolivia did work to the extent thatafter the 1952 revolution, many of the large latifundias were broken up and the land redistributed amongthe working classes, particularly to the indigenouspopulation. The Indiansweregiven title to their landsafter nominal payments weremade to the landownersby the government.24 Over 19,536,850 acres, (nearly31,000 square miles,) were in the hands of the Indianpopulationby1967.25Thisredistributionhadfar-reachingconsequences when Cuban revolutionary elements

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Guatemala

Bay of PigsCuban Missile Crisis ........

DominicanRepublic

Cuba

Venezuela

Colombia

Brazil

Bolivia

Peru

Argentina

Coup

Failed Coup

Assassination

Failed Assassination

Foco Wars

Urban Guerrilla Warfare

Revolution

Uruguay

In the 1960s, Latin America was subject to a series of Foco wars and other insurgencies. The map depicts the instability that plagued the region. Map by D. Telles.

led by Ernesto “Che” Guevara attempted to foment aCommunistrevolution.Chewasunabletogainsupportfromthelocalpopulationandfailedinhisattempttostartapopular revolution inBolivia.Byand large,however,attemptsatlandreformandmorepopularparticipationingovernmentelsewhereinLatinAmericafailed.Bytheendofthe1960s,U.S.economicinfluencehadwanedandmilitaryjuntasweretheorderoftheday.The1960swereadecadeofsweepingchangesaround

theglobe.TheworldevolvedfromastrictlybipolaronedividedalongEast-Westlines,tooneofregionalspheresofinfluence.Thedecadewasoneofmilitary,ideological,and social revolution and virtually no nation wentunscathed.FortheUnitedStates,anincreasingmilitaryinvolvement in Vietnam and the need for constantengagementinEuropetoshoreupthefrontlinesoftheCold War were the primary concerns of Washington.After a promising beginning, U.S. influence in LatinAmerica waned as the decade drew to a close. Thehemisphereprovedparticularlysusceptible to thesirensongofCuban-sponsoredrevolution.Bolivia,oneofthepoorestandmostpoliticallychaoticoftheLatinAmericannations,was aprime target for an insurgency.But, thefailure of Che’s effort is one of the few AmericancounterinsurgencysuccessstoriesinLatinAmerica.

Kenneth Finlayson is the USASOC Deputy Command Historian. He earned his PhD from the University of Maine, and is a retired Army officer. Current research interests include Army special operations during the Korean War, special operations aviation, and World War II special operations units.

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Bolivia was one of the few Latin American countries in which land reform measures had some success. The large Indian population of Bolivia did benefit from the reforms by acquiring arable land from the large latifundias.

Endnotes1 Herman F. Achminow, “Crisis in Mao’s Realm and Moscow’s China

Policy,”Orbis,Winter1968,1179-1192.2 Ducci,“TheWorldOrderintheSixties,”Foreign Affairs,April1964,381.3 Richard J. Erickson, “Development of the Strategy of Peaceful Coexistence

DuringtheKhrushchevEra,”Air University Review,January-February1973,5.4 René Albrecht-Carré, “Europe and the German Problem,”Orbis, Winter

1969,1031-1045;KlausBloemer,“Germanyanda‘EuropeanEurope’,”Orbis,Spring1966,240-246.

5 AlastairBuchan,“PartnersandAllies,“Foreign Affairs,July1963,621.6 ChiefH.O.Domes,“TheNewAfricanProfile,”Foreign Affairs,January1962,293.7 ClaudeE.Welch,“SoldierandStateinAfrica,”The Journal of Modern African

Studies,November1967,305-322.8 PhilipW.Quigg,“LatinAmerica:ABroad-BrushAppraisal,”Foreign Affairs,

April1964,401.9 ThomasC.Wright,Latin America in the Era of the Cuban Revolution(Westport,

CT: Praeger, 1991), 61. Cuban Vice-President Carlos Rafael Rodriguez isquotedassaying“Cubahasthedutyofcarryingout,andwillalwayscarryout,a revolutionary,proletarian internationalism.”MargaretDalyHayes,Latin America and the U.S. National Interest: A Basis for U.S. Foreign Policy (Boulder,CO:WestviewPress,1984),103.

10 RobertH.Ferrell,American Diplomacy: A History (NewYork,W.W.Norton&Co.,1975),766-771;Quigg,“LatinAmerica:ABroad-BrushAppraisal,”401.

11 Quigg,“LatinAmerica:ABroad-BrushAppraisal,”402;RobertC.Hill,“U.S.Policytowards,LatinAmerica,”Orbis,Summer1966,390-407.

12 HubertH.Humphrey,“U.S.Policy inLatinAmerica,”Foreign Affairs, July1964,588.

13 Neil B.Mills, “An Analysis of Civic Action in Selected UnderdevelopedCountries,”Master’sThesis,U.S.ArmyCommandandGeneralStaffCollege,FortLeavenworth,Kansas,1964;Between1961and1967,theUnitedStatescontributedanaverageof$2billionannuallytotheAllianceForProgress. Wright,Latin America in the Era of the Cuban Revolution,71.

14 Wright,Latin America in the Era of the Cuban Revolution, 72.15 GeorgeC.Lodge,“RevolutioninLatinAmerica,”Foreign Affairs,June1966.16 EduardoFreiMontalva, “TheAllianceThatLost ItsWay,”Foreign Affairs,

April1967,438.17 Frei,“TheAllianceThatLostItsWay,”438.18 Robert Alexander, “Agrarian Reform in Latin America,” Foreign Affairs,

October1962,192.19 Wright,Latin America in the Era of the Cuban Revolution, 70;GrahamH.Stuart

andJamesL.Tigner,Latin America and the United States,6thed,(EnglewoodCliffs,NJ:Prentice-Hall,1975),804-805.

20 ErnestR.May,“TheAllianceforProgress:AHistoricalPerspective,”Foreign Affairs,July1963,757.

21 Frei,“TheAllianceThatLostItsWay,”438.22 AstrongindicatoroftheAFPslossofcoherencewastheaccumulationof

specialconditions,provisos,andprohibitionsattachedtoeconomicaid.ThedecayoftheAlliancebeganunderKennedyandacceleratedunderLyndonJohnson.JulieCotlerandRichardR.Fagen,ed.,Latin America & the United States: The Changing Political Realities (Stanford CA: Stanford UniversityPress,1974)190.

23 Quigg,“LatinAmerica:ABroad-BrushAppraisal,”409.24 Alexander,“AgrarianReforminLatinAmerica,”199.25 John D. Waghelstein, “A Theory of Revolutionary Warfare and Its

Application to theBolivianAdventureofCheGuevara,”Master’sThesis,CornellUniversity,1973,119.

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