Transnational conservative activism and the transformation of the salvadoran right, 1967-1982
General Material Designation
[Thesis]
First Statement of Responsibility
Aaron T. Bell
Subsequent Statement of Responsibility
Friedman, Max P.
.PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC
Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.
American University
Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.
2016
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Specific Material Designation and Extent of Item
387
GENERAL NOTES
Text of Note
Committee members: Brenner, Philip; Findlay, Eileen; Hershberg, Eric
NOTES PERTAINING TO PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC.
Text of Note
Place of publication: United States, Ann Arbor; ISBN=978-1-339-40480-6
DISSERTATION (THESIS) NOTE
Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree
Ph.D.
Discipline of degree
History
Body granting the degree
American University
Text preceding or following the note
2016
SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
In October 1979, a group of military officers orchestrated a successful coup against the regime that had ruled El Salvador for nearly half a century. Concerned that surging civil unrest at home was the prelude to a left-wing revolution reminiscent of the recent Sandinista victory in nearby Nicaragua, the officers appointed a broad-based civil-military junta and pledged to respond to popular demands for social, economic, and political reforms. Faced with the dual threat of structural reforms supported by reformists in the military and the US government, and a left-wing opposition movement intent on leading a popular revolution, military and private sector rightists organized a political-paramilitary counterrevolutionary response with material support and advice procured through transnational networks of right-wing activists and organizations. The Salvadoran right successfully undermined the government's reform program while strengthening the position of officers who favored a violent purge of the opposition. Salvadoran rightists took their fight to the United States as well, where they championed their cause as quintessentially American in its defense of free market economic values and its commitment to fighting communism imposed from without and within. Though overshadowed by the Iran-Contra affair, US policy toward El Salvador's conflict was critical to defining Washington's Latin America agenda during the final phase of the Cold War and to efforts by the Reagan White House to navigate foreign policy autonomously amidst pressures from different currents of the Republican Party. Using private and government archival sources, media, and scholarship from the United States, El Salvador, and throughout Latin America, this study shows how transnational processes involving state and non-state actors alike have shaped domestic dynamics in both the United States and Latin America.
TOPICAL NAME USED AS SUBJECT
Latin American history; American history; History
UNCONTROLLED SUBJECT TERMS
Subject Term
Social sciences;Cold war;Conservative politics;El salvador;Foreign policy;Transnational