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Peru and the United States, 1960–1975
How Their Ambassadors Managed Foreign Relations in a Turbulent Era
344 pages | 15 illustrations | 6 x 9 | 2010
ISBN 978-0-271-03631-1 | cloth: $75.00
Paperback edition is not available in the U.S.
“Through this rigorously researched book, readers almost eavesdrop on pivotal conversations among U.S. and Peruvian presidents and diplomats between 1960 and 1975. Highlighting the efforts of U.S. and Peruvian ambassadors to retain positive bilateral relations during these tense years, Richard Walter adds a great deal to our knowledge, especially about the controversies over the fates of the International Petroleum Company and other U.S. companies in Peru.” —Cynthia McClintock, George Washington University
“Walter’s book is the first close analysis of the diplomacy shaping the Peruvian government’s policies during the first years of the Alliance for Progress through the dynamic but erratic nationalist programs of the military government of General Juan Velasco Alvarado (1968–75). Most notably, Walter makes clear how misdirected U.S. policy undermined the democratic regime of President Belaúnde Terry (1963–68) and opened the door for more than a decade of military rule. An examination of how Washington dealt with the policies with the often pro-Soviet Velasco regime is one of the principal strengths of this important book.” —Daniel Masterson, United States Naval Academy
“This book is an impeccably researched, skillfully constructed, and balanced account of U.S.-Peruvian relations during a particularly difficult period. It emphasizes the respective roles of the ambassadors, who are often overlooked or dismissed in traditional approaches to diplomatic history.” —Peter Klaren, George Washington University
The period of 1960 to 1975 was a time when the United States paid more than the usual amount of attention to relations with Latin America, contending with Fidel Castros efforts to export the revolution and with Salvador Allendes efforts to establish a socialist government in Chile, for example. During this turbulent era, U.S. relations with Peru were fraught with tensions and difficulties, too: the Kennedy administration wrestled with the question of how to deal with the military regime that took over by coup in 1962, the administration of Lyndon Johnson tangled with Peru over its expropriation of the International Petroleum Company and its effort to establish a two-hundred-mile limit for its territorial waters, and the government under presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford had to contend with the policies of a reformist military regime that took an even harder line on expropriation and fishing rights than its civilian predecessor. Using newly declassified records from the U.S. State Department as well as records from the archives of the Peruvian Foreign Ministry, supplemented by interviews with participants from both sides, Richard Walter provides a nuanced look at the complexities of Peruvian-U.S. relations during this important period, highlighting especially the hitherto neglected role of the ambassadors from each country in managing the relationship and influencing the outcomes.
Richard J. Walter is Professor Emeritus of History at Washington University in St. Louis. He is the author of Politics and Urban Growth in Santiago, Chile, 1891–1941 (2005).
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Peru and JFK
2. Belande, LBJ, and the Mann Doctrine
3. Belande, the Counterguerrilla Campaign, and the Role of the United States
4. Belandes Position Begins to Crumble
5. The End of the Belande Administration
6. The Coup and Its Aftermath
7. Velasco and the Nixon Administration
8. Public and Private Negotiations
9. Continuity and Some Change
10. Change, Crisis, and Continuity
11. Nixon and Velasco Exit the Scene
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index