From Gunboats to Diplomacy: New U.S. Policies for Latin America edited by Richard Newfarmer. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 250 pp. $25.00 (cloth); $11.95 (paper). Published in the spring of this year, this collection of essays came as a re- sponse to the Kissinger Commission report. The authors are 16 well-known experts in the field, several of whom were active in foreign policy during the Carter Administration, and in this collection they challenge the findings of the Kissinger Commission at every level. The introduction opens, appropri- ately enough, with Kissinger’s infam- ous 1969 remark to the Chilean for- eign minister–‘What happens in the South is of no importance . . . “- then proceeds to dissect Reagan’s bel- licose and misguided policies. The text follows in a useful manner. Two theoretical overviews lead into ten country case studies, then three essays on recent developments in the policy field. The authors’ views may already be familiar. Nonetheless, this book should help illuminate the debate on foreign policy alternatives. Rebellion in the Veins: Political Struggle in Bolivia 1952-1982 by James Dunkerley. Verso Editions (distributed by Schocken Books), 373 pp. $9.50 (paper). The rugged isolation of Bolivia’s geography mirrors a recent trend in political discourse on Latin America that has managed to reduce that na- tion, a center of considerable power in both pre-Columbian and colonial eras, to something of a nonentity. Most people know Bolivia as a cocaine cen- ter, the site of Che Guevara’s death and a paradigm of political instability. According to Dunkerley, only two English-language books currently in print offer in-depth studies of Bolivia’s 1952 revolution, and even Spanish texts have generally over- looked it. (Dunkerley states that be- side certain academic specialists, only Trotskyists, who claim a large consti- tuency there, identify strongly with the Bolivian experience-a fact that would seem only to enhance its obscurity). But now Dunkerley has produced a very detailed and readable history of Bolivia over the 30 years since the 1952 revolution. The extensive foot- notes bespeak the copious research that went into this volume. Grenada: Revolution and Invasion by Anthony Payne, Paul Sutton and Tony Thorndike. St.Martin’s Press, 228 pp. $19.95 (cloth). Almost a year after the U.S. inva- sion of Grenada, a volume of litera- ture on that nation and the bizzare events of its recent history is begin- ning to appear-with most of the new material by British writers. The au- thors of Grenada are British academ- ics specializing in international poli- tics, and the emphasis of their study lies on the involvement and response of the international community in re- cent Grenadian history. The material on Britain’s role, or perhaps missing role, is of particular interest. The fact that the British gov- ernment itself extended export credit to Plessey, the firm contracted for electronic control tower apparatus at Point Salines airport, but was not con- sulted by Reagan on its alleged mili- tary specifications, for example, has altered British perceptions of the ‘mutual trust and cooperation” of the Reagan/Thatcher alliance. The authors also provide interesting insights into the Grenadian domestic setting and the dissolution of the People’s Revolutionary Government in this valuable study. The Politics of Intervention: The United States in Central America edited by Roger Burbach and Patricia Flynn. Monthly Review Press/Center for the Study of the Americas, 250 pp. $10.00 (paper). In 1981, the Center for the Study of the Americas (CENSA), a non-profit organization devoted to the study of Latin America and the Caribbean, sponsored a discussion to address U.S. interests in Central America. The ideas engendered in that confer- ence form the basis of this collection. The essays are written by CENSA staff members David Landes, Patricia Flynn and Roger Burbach (the last two are also former NACLA staff) and by five academics based at uni- versities in California and the North- east. The authors have taken the use- ful step of looking at motives behind the Administration’s blatantly wrong- headed policies in the region. The machinations of U.S. corporate inter- ests are closely scrutinized in this in- formative addition to policy studies.
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