U.S. Interventions in Latin America and Beyond

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 12 January 2026

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For over 200 years, American presidents have repeatedly justified intervention as 'protection' - from the Monroe Doctrine of the 1820s, Teddy Roosevelt at the turn of the 20th century, to Richard Nixon and George H.W. Bush during the Cold War. America has a long history of using formal, informal, military and economic power to influence and exert control in its neighbouring countries and beyond.

Dan is joined by Professor Daniel Immerwahr, historian and author of How to Hide an Empire: The Greater United States, to explore the ways in which America has shaped the political landscape in the western hemisphere for two centuries. They examine the parallels and differences of historic interventions like the 1954 coup in Guatemala and the 1989 invasion of Panama with the events of today.

Produced by Mariana Des Forges, edited by Dougal Patmore.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome, everybody. Welcome to the podcast. Donald Trump has embraced the Dunrow Doctrine.
0:08.0	Off the back of that extraordinary special forces raid, the exfiltration of the Venezuelan leader
0:13.0	Maduro, he's talked about U.S. interventions in Cuba, and Mexico, Colombia, even Greenland.
0:20.5	Trump's State Department posted a picture of Trump sort of asserting that the Western
0:25.3	hemisphere was the USA's hemisphere.
0:29.1	Others supporters have been posting cartoon images of Trump towering above the Americas,
0:33.8	dominating the continents, which is so fascinating, a direct echo of early 20th century images
0:39.3	of Uncle Sam astriding the Americas, as previous generations of US policymakers flex their muscles
0:46.5	in North and South America. Because folks, you must be bored of me saying this on the podcast,
0:52.1	but none of this is new. We have seen those same cartoons.
0:56.5	Just even the expression, Dunrow Doctrine, it's a witty historic play on words.
1:01.4	It harks back to the famous Monroe Doctrine.
1:04.0	Now that was a, well, it began as an idea, really, the musings of that president Monroe in the 1820s, with an eye on the Spanish colonies of Central and
1:14.3	South America, a little bit of British activity here and there as well. Monroe gave a clear
1:19.2	signal that Europe's time for interfering in the affairs of the Western Hemisphere were at an end.
1:25.2	This theme was enlarged upon by subsequent presidents. It became the
1:28.5	famous Monroe Doctrine, the idea that the Western Hemisphere was the United States of America's
1:36.1	sphere of influence. And for the last 200 years since Monroe, the US has expressed that commitment
1:41.7	in a number of different ways. It's tried invasion, a fair bit. It's annexed
1:47.3	territory here and there, like Puerto Rico. It's deposed plenty of governments. It's snatched a couple
1:51.9	of leaders like Noriega from Panama in 1989 or Majuro from Venezuela, just a few days ago.
1:59.3	It has tried to kill others like like Castro, many, many times.
	...

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