The end of the Second World War and particularly the Soviet’s decisive victory over the Nazis at the Battle of Stalingrad cultivated within many Russians sentiments that the Soviet Union should be and could be a global power. I challenge the neorealist perspective by arguing that such ideological forces drove the United States to implement irrational and costly policies toward Latin America (such as supporting military coups). Dominguez, “were committed to combat communism, not just the Soviet Union.” This paper will argue that anti-Communist ideology shaped the United States’ foreign policy toward Latin America during the Cold War, particularly after the Cuban Revolution in 1959. Similarly, the United States responded to Soviet foreign policy with ideological fervor, determined to contain (and eventually dismantle) the forces of Communism. Zubok challenges this perspective, however, arguing that throughout most of the Cold War, ideological factors shaped and influenced the Soviet Union’s decisions and policies.

From this perspective, the two superpowers of the 20 th century (the United States and the Soviet Union) rationally designed their policies in order to serve their best interest. The predominant interpretation of the Cold War draws from a realist perspective which attributes the Soviet Union and the United States’ pursuit for economic, military, and influential superiority over one another as an inevitable characteristic of powerful states seeking hegemony within an anarchic international system. US Foreign Policy in Latin America: An Ideological Perspective

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