In Bruce Calder’s book, The Impact of Intervention, he examines
the overall American use of a militaristic government and occupation of both
the Dominican Republic and Haiti. He focuses on many topics that both represent
the problems with the United States policy of colonial power and the lasting
negative effects on relations with Caribbean and South American countries.
Bruce Calder’s Epilogue concentrates
on first, the problems with Military Occupations. Secondly, how in many ways
the Dominicans resisted North Americanization. Lastly, the author answers, from
his own perspective, what legacy did the United States create for itself by
acting out such policies. In conclusion, I will argue that there are several
themes that can be connected between Calder’s book, and that of The Imperial
Surge by Thomas Paterson and Stephen Rabe. After the fighting of World War I
had subsided, the U.S. retreated from the world platform; however, the U.S. did
not retreat from its imperialist polices already deeply entrenched in South
America. Specifically, in the Dominican Republic from 1916 to 1924.
The
first component to Calder’s epilogue outlines problems with the United States
military occupation. A problem that the marines had ever since the occupation
began was the rising nationalism and the guerilla fighters in the Eastern part
of the region. This fighting demoralized the U.S. troops primarily because they
were losing a battle to an enemy that they did not respect as a fighting force.
In addition, the United States military government had intricate structural and
communication problems through the three branches in charge of maintaining the
country. Incoherent policies that were
unintelligible to the enlisted or low level officers did not help matters
either. The latter, was mostly a problem pertaining to policies sent from Washington,
often taking months to return or make decisions. Washington’s preoccupation
with ending the First World War took much of the necessary time and
administration needed away from the military government. Another issue that the
American government had was with their social and political programs. Although
they were funded by both the American tax payer and the privet sector profits,
they still failed. Unless the U.S. found a way to tie the programs to the
social or political leaders of the Dominican elite; often, the programs would
fail due to a lack of participation. As Calder states in his book, “Generally
the programs which were likely to succeed were those which had the support of a
sizable group of influential Dominicans, which harmonized well with prevailing
political, economic, and social realities, or which, like the construction
projects, involved primarily material concerns”.[1]
With such foundational problems within the government little if any real work
was ever achieved.
Although
there were many failures on behalf of the American military government, it is
not to say that the population of the Dominican Republic helped the U.S. forces
in any way. In fact, the population strategically fought against the American
policies whenever there was any disagreement over a political, social, or
economic policy that did not mesh with the current reality of the people. In
the Eastern region, the people waged a guerilla war against the United States
marines and had it not been for the strength of the United States economic
resilience to the issue, according to the author, the guerillas may have
regained control. These Dominicans fought for and believed strongly in a
nationalistic pride of country and believed that the sovereignty of their state
was being repressed by the American government. In addition, the passage of
some legal laws designed to protect the Dominican sugar agricultural markets
were installed; however, because of the other measures not being maintained
such as land ownership by outside companies, the markets were not safe from
foreign influence. Lastly, the people resisted by not participating in social,
political, or economic programs set up by the U.S. government if they were
designed to Americanize a specific Dominican cultural element. The very act of
not participating was costing the American tax payer every day the program was
not utilized. There are many other ways that the people resisted the North
Americanization of their culture and country, these simply being the most
pronounced in Calder’s book.
What
was the legacy of American Imperialism in the Dominican Republic due to the
policies from 1916 to 1924? In the closing paragraph, Calder states his
conclusion of the occupation as, “neither wise nor just, a policy which in the
long run yielded little good to either party, but which, on the other hand,
brought considerable harm”[2].
Calder’s main frustration of the occupation can be summed up to a few main
points. First, although the U.S. stated in public that they were moving the
Dominican Republic toward democracy, they only strengthened preexisting
political structures. No real attempt to Democratize the nation ever took
place. Secondly, the political powers that were in place prior to 1916, took
back power after the U.S. left in 1924. This basically meant that no political
change occurred even with the economic and military giving all they could for
eight years. Thirdly, as the United States began to lose control, the
repressiveness of the occupation increased significantly and the financial
standing decreased rapidly. This lead to a great deal of problems, eventually
forcing the U.S. to abandon the island. The occupation of the Dominican
Republic showed the world two self-evident realities. First, the U.S. due to
its political democracy was not favorable to hold colonial territories through
military means. Secondly, the United States policies of Americanization failed
in their application. Cultural norms had yet again out done the social programs
that American foreign policy wished to implement. With this being said, the
United States had lost a good portion if not all of its moral position when
pertaining to the Caribbean Islands and its world position was hindered as
well.
In
conclusion of my analysis on the epilogue to The Impact of Intervention by Bruce Calder, I want to draw some
lines to the former book we studied, The
Imperial Surge by Thomas Paterson and Stephen Rabe. Specifically, to the paper by Stanley Karnow
which looks at the social and educational programs implemented in the
Philippines. The stark contrast between the social programs that the U.S. used
in both regions tend to mirror onto each other perfectly. The tool of
“re-education” or “Americanization through education” tends to be deployed
repetitively time and time again with little to no positive outcome. Both in
the Philippines and in the Dominican Republic we see an incorporation and
evolution of pre-existing cultural society with American concepts; however, the
fundamental cultural foundations are keep solidly in place. We also see in
several of the other papers how the U.S. deployed its superior economic
position to influence and maintain control over the occupational areas. This
was evident in all the readings in The
Imperial Surge as well as The Impact
of Intervention. The similarities it seems are continuous and follow a
predictable pattern of events, the only difference being the names and
locations. This is perhaps what Calder was eluding to when he stated, “If
humans were really to learn from experience, could have saved the United States
and the less powerful victims of its interventionist diplomacy incalculable
waste of life and wealth in the future.”[3]
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