From the assertion of the Monroe Doctrine in 1823 to the Reagan Doctrine of the 1980s, the United States has presumed a position of political leadership and pre-eminence in the Western Hemisphere. This has been made possible by two main factors: America's huge economy, which has made the U.S. the largest single commercial market and the biggest investor in Latin America, and America's military prowess, which has been convincingly demonstrated in victories in the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) and the Spanish-American War (1898). This volume concentrates on the history of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and the nations of Latin America from the creation of the independent United States in the late eighteenth century up to the present. This is accomplished through a chronology, an introduction, a bibliography, appendixes, and hundreds of cross-referenced dictionary entries on the countries involved, significant events, major crises, important figures, controversial issues, and doctrines and policies that have evolved. For scholars, historians, and students interested in the diplomacy of these two regions, the Historical Dictionary of United States-Latin American Relations is an essential reference.

The relationship between the world’s largest power and the small nations of the Caribbean has been and remains rich and varied. The history of political and security collaboration is long, if not untroubled: the United States is the Caribbean’s predominant trade and investment partner, and U.S. culture is as pervasive in the region as are U.S. goods. At the same time, the proximity, smallness, and economic dependence of these countries have all contributed to a tendency for the United States to seek to dominate the region, often enough by resort to hard power. From the nineteenth century through the Cold War, the United States has resorted to military interventions and coercive diplomacy to ensure that this region, so close to its shores, remains stable and friendly. The Historical Dictionary of United States-Caribbean Relations contains a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 700 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture.

The period encompassed by this volume—with the start of the Civil War and World War I as bookends—has gone by a number of colorful names: The Imperial Years, The New American Empire, America’s Rise to World Power, Imperial Democracy, The Awkward Years, or Prelude to World Power, for example. A different organizing theme would describe the period as one in which a transformation took place in American foreign relations. But whatever developments or events historians have emphasized, there is general agreement that the period was one in which something changed in the American approach to the world. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of U.S. Diplomacy from the Civil War to World War I contains a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 1,000 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about diplomacy during this period.

William Jefferson Clinton’s legacy remains a matter of significant contention among historians, political scientists, and pundits even after a decade of time to reflect. The narrative of Clinton’s two terms may be, in some sense, the tale of two different men—or at least two incongruous public views of the nation’s 42nd chief executive. On the one hand, there is the Clinton who left the White House more popular than when he took office—entering with a 58 percent approval rating and leaving with a 66 percent approval rating. On the other hand, an ABC News poll conducted on his last day showed that 67 percent of Americans said Clinton was not honest and trustworthy. The Historical Dictionary of the Clinton Era covers both sides of the Clinton presidency through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 300 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, including the president, his advisors, his family, his opponents, and his critics, as well as members of Congress, military leaders, and international leaders. This book is a vital access point for students, researchers, and anyone interested in the presidency of Bill Clinton.

This Historical Dictionary of U.S. Diplomacy during the Cold War offers readers a comprehensive, accessible survey of the principal actors and events involved in the making of United States foreign policy during a crucial period in the nation’s history. The Cold War saw the United States acquire superpower status, and to be closely involved in events around the globe. Foreign policy became a central issue in domestic politics. The confrontations with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and its allies and satellites, and with the forces of international communism dominated U.S. interactions with the world throughout this period. This book covers this turbulent period through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 900 cross-referenced entries on key persons, policies, events, institutions, and organizations, along with issues such as the division of Germany after World War II, the creation of the People’s Republic of China, European economic recovery, communist movements in the third worlds, decolonization, the Vietnam War, and the nuclear arms race. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about U.S. diplomacy during the cold war.

The evolution of the United States from a late-18th century coalition of rebel British colonies to a 21st century global superpower was shaped by several forces. As the nation expanded its boundaries after the Treaty of Paris confirmed independence from Great Britain in 1783, it acquired a rich variety of resources – coal, fertile soils, forests, iron ore, oil, precious metals, space, and varied climates as well as extensive tracts of territory. Technological innovations, such as the cotton gin and steam power, enabled entrepreneurs to exploit those resources and create wealth. Federal and state legislators provided environments in which the economy could flourish, and military strategists kept the country safe from external attack. Diplomats negotiated commercial agreements with foreign governments and cultivated multinational alliances that strengthened freedoms. Through its focus on the people and places that shaped the country’s economic and political development and its detailed accounts of the processes that enabled the U.S. to expand across the continent Historical Dictionary of the United States contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has more than 400 cross-referenced entries on important personalities as well as aspects of the country’s politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the United States.

The Historical Dictionary of Inter-American Organizations covers the changing world of inter-American and international organizations that have played an important role in bilateral and multilateral efforts to solve a wide range of problems that have confronted the nations of the Western Hemisphere. The Latin American region is clearly more integrated regionally and internationally than in previous decades and is better prepared to confront a broad range of problems—trade, development, illicit drugs, terrorism and guerrilla activity, health, environment, democratization, trade, human rights, intervention, electoral assistance, peacekeeping and conflict resolutions, migration, border conflicts, corruption, and energy independence—that governments and non-governmental organizations face in the 21st century. The role of the United States in Latin America has clearly faded since the end of the Cold War and the second edition of this book fills a large void in explaining the complexities of inter-American organizations and their activities since the first edition was completed in the late 1990s. This updated second edition of Historical Dictionary of Inter-American Organizations covers the history of through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 400 hundred cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Inter-American Organizations.

The recent commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s election as the thirty-fifth president of the United States serves as a reminder of a period of time that many Americans perceive as idyllic. Just as his election, despite a near-run thing, had instilled a pervasive sense of hope throughout the country, his assassination stunned the entire nation, scarring the psyche of a generation of Americans. More than half a century later, JFK continues to inspire debates about the effectiveness of the presidency, as well as his own political legacy, making the senator from Massachusetts the object of many enduring myths: that he would have been one of the country’s greatest leaders had he lived, he would have kept the US out of a full-fledged Vietnam war, and that he was a martyr of right-wing assassins. His successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, who did get the US deeply involved in Vietnam while pursuing the social reforms of the Great Society at home and abroad, also casts a long shadow in the twenty-first century, as the nation continues to deal with poverty, racism, and social injustice. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of the Kennedy-Johnson Era covers its history through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 300 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, including the president, his advisors, his family, his opponents, and his critics, as well as members of Congress, military leaders, and international leaders. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about John F. Kennedy.

Historical Dictionary of U.S. Diplomacy from the Revolution to Secession covers the period from 1776, when the nation declared its independence from Great Britain, through 1861, when the Civil War presented the biggest challenge to the continuation of the “republican experiment.” Probably the most common misconception about the diplomatic history of this period is that American leaders tried to stay isolated from world events, when in fact the early United States was part of “one grand, interwoven tapestry” of nations. The Historical Dictionary of U.S. Diplomacy from the Revolution to Secession relates the events of this crucial period in American history through a chronology, an introductory essay, and several hundred cross-referenced dictionary entries on key persons, places, events, institutions, and organizations. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about American diplomacy.

The period from the outset of World War I to the end of World War II was among the most significant in the history of the United States. Twice it was drawn into 'foreign entanglements'_wars it initially thought were no concern of its own and of which it tried to steer clear_only to realize that it could not stand aside. With each one, it geared up in record time, entered the fray massively, and was crucial to the outcome. Each war tested the American people and their leaders, and in each case the country came out of the conflagration stronger than before_and even more important_yet stronger relative to other countries than it had ever been. This was the period when the United States became a world leader. The Historical Dictionary of U.S. Diplomacy from World War I through World War II relates the events of this crucial period in U.S. history through a chronology, an introductory essay, and over 600 cross-referenced dictionary entries on key persons, places, events, institutions, and organizations.