Colombia and the United States

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A valuable addition to the New Studies in U.S. Foreign Relations Series

World War II and the Cold War transformed U.S.-Colombian security relations. The republics first partnered to defend the Western Hemisphere during World War II, a wartime affiliation that promoted hemispheric solidarity, inter-American military readiness, and regional stability. After the war, Colombian and U.S. combat units fought together in Korea. A Colombian infantry battalion and frigate joined the U.S.-led United Nations Command in 1951; Colombian soldiers later served with the United Nations Emergency Force during the Suez Conflict (1956-1958). Soon thereafter, Colombian and American authorities began focusing on Colombian internal security problems, particularly issues associated with the domestic political, social, and religious convulsion known as la Violencia (1946-1958). In doing so, the two countries had formed the basis of the modern Colombian-American partnership.

Placing the bilateral relationship in a global context, this military and diplomatic history examines the importance of ideology, material interests, and power in U.S.-Latin American relations. Historian Bradley Coleman demonstrates how the making of the Colombian-American alliance exemplified hemispheric interconnectedness, a condition of ever-growing importance in the twenty-first century.

Employing available Colombian and U.S. archival sources, this book fills a gap in the literature on U.S. relations with less developed countries and provides new research on the origins an development of the U.S-Colombian alliance that will serve as an invaluable resource for scholars of U.S. and Latin American diplomacy.