# I would feel better about Latin America if **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 30, 2022, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-would-feel-better-about-latin-america-if/974009 "2022-10-30T07:16:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cannonkuo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b9bd4f/32.png) [@cannonkuo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cannonkuo)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-would-feel-better-about-latin-america-if/974009/1 "2022-10-30T07:16:30Z")
During the White House meeting held five days after the Argentine invasion of the Falklands… Ronald Reagan: I’d offer this assessment: **I would feel better about Latin America if we retain the friendship of both parties in this crisis,** but it is more important to us now that the UK not fail. ([Foreign Relations of the United States, 1981–1988, Volume XIII, Conflict in the South Atlantic, 1981–1984 - Office of the Historian](https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1981-88v13/d76)) My question is why Reagan says he’d feel better about Latin America if the US can retain the friendship between the two sides of the dispute. It was Argentina that launched the invasion, not Latin America. What has the invasion got to do with Latin America? ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-would-feel-better-about-latin-america-if/974009/2 "2022-10-30T08:44:36Z")
Argentina emerged from the Spanish Empire and has always had a Latin culture. Its size and population make it an important part of the South American economy. Its financial mess in the early 1980s eventually involved Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela, the IMF, the United States… hardly an isolated affair. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-would-feel-better-about-latin-america-if/974009/3 "2022-10-30T10:08:00Z")
I’m guessing Reagan was assuming that public opinion across Latin America sided with Argentina and would become more anti-US if the US were seen to be favouring the UK. Therefore he was hoping to find a way to keep friends in Latin America while at least helping the UK avoid failure. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-would-feel-better-about-latin-america-if/974009/4 "2022-10-30T10:34:01Z")
> **[Monroe Doctrine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monroe_Doctrine)** > > The Monroe Doctrine was a United States foreign policy position that opposed European colonialism in the Western Hemisphere. It held that any intervention in the political affairs of the Americas by foreign powers was a potentially hostile act against the United States. The doctrine was central to American foreign policy for much of the 19th and early 20th centuries. > President James Monroe first articulated the doctrine on December 2, 1823, during his seventh annual State of the Union Addres... ---
**Author:** ![filmstar-en](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/50afbb/32.png) [@filmstar-en](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmstar-en)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-would-feel-better-about-latin-america-if/974009/5 "2022-10-30T11:07:35Z")
South America was the source of much concern to the USA as it tried to keep Soviet influence out and stop them from going communist and at the same time moderate the expansionist tendencies of military regimes such as Argentina under Galtieri’s junta. The UK was a bulwark against the Soviets in Europe and a close ally. The last thing the US wanted was a war between two allies. Reagan was reflecting on the dilemma that support for one side would alienate the other. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-would-feel-better-about-latin-america-if/974009/6 "2022-10-30T11:24:52Z")
I should have glossed a bit - “public opinion” wasn’t the only factor in considering Latin America, since much of it was in the grip of assorted military dictatorships, some of which had their own issues with the Argentine junta (e.g Pinochet in Chile) ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-would-feel-better-about-latin-america-if/974009/7 "2022-10-30T11:53:45Z")
Argentina is a Latin American country, and public opinion across Latin America sympathised with Argentina against the UK. Reagan was saying that he was hoping he could support the UK in a manner that would not alienate the other Latin American countries. ---
**Author:** ![cannonkuo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b9bd4f/32.png) [@cannonkuo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cannonkuo)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-would-feel-better-about-latin-america-if/974009/8 "2022-10-30T12:21:10Z")
So President Reagan at the time believes it would be in the best interest of the United States to resolve the crisis and maintain the friendship between the two allies. Am I correct? ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-would-feel-better-about-latin-america-if/974009/9 "2022-10-30T12:59:28Z")
I don’t think he meant that he wanted to maintain friendship between the UK and Argentina; that would have been unrealistic because relations between these countries had long been strained over the Falklands. What he meant was, I think, that the US should behave in a manner that preserved American friendship with both Argentina (and the Latin American countries sympathising with it) and the UK. ---
**Author:** ![cannonkuo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b9bd4f/32.png) [@cannonkuo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cannonkuo)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-would-feel-better-about-latin-america-if/974009/10 "2022-10-30T13:13:25Z")
I see. Thank you, Schnitte. ---
**Author:** ![filmstar-en](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/50afbb/32.png) [@filmstar-en](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmstar-en)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2022, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-would-feel-better-about-latin-america-if/974009/11 "2022-10-30T13:16:44Z")
Yes, I am sure if the US had any warning of Argentine junta’s plans to invade the Falklands, they would have pulled whatever strings they could to stop a military confrontation from happening and pursue a diplomatic solution. However, it is clear that the US intelligence services were not on top of the internal dynamics of the Argentine junta. After the invasion there was a great deal of diplomatic activity as the British prepared their armada and it made its way to the South Atlantic. But there was little the US could do. A concession by either side would have led to a humiliating climbdown. The political stakes were too high and there was little room for compromise. It was a ‘fait accompli’ by the Argentines and they gambled that the British would be unwilling or unable to defend their territory at such a range. They were wrong and this little war had a dramatic effect on the politics of both countries. Galtieri and his junta were looking for an upsurge in patriotism to mask the serious economic and problems and the effects of the vicious repression of political enemies. Instead they lost , the army was humiliated and Thatcher in the UK got that upsurge and she was in power for another ten years. When conflict became inevitable the US sided with the UK and the Latin American countries (and Spain) favoured Argentina or were neutral in the interests of Hispanic solidarity. With the exception of Chile, which had much to fear from Argentine expansionism. Argentines have a certain reputation in South America that does not win many friends. They attacked the UK when it was particularly close to the US and still had a navy that could project power. They could probably have come to some diplomatic solution to the Falklands Question if they were wise. But that would not have been what Galtieri was looking for.