In what ways did the Cold War matter? To those who lived through the overthrow of Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala in 1954 or Salvador Allende in Chile in 1973, or those who experienced the 1962 Cuban missile crisis or the brutal wars in several Central American countries in the 1980s, the question may seem silly. Of course it mattered, but how it mattered has long been contested. This book signals in its title that the Cold War was not just about the talons of the eagle. The eagle remains central to the story, but this splendid book finds nuance and insight lurking beneath its shadows.
The editors frame the book around three questions; namely, how did Latin American governments exercise initiative? how did people experience the Cold War? and how do left-right, Communist-capitalist dichotomies describe the Cold War era? Most but not all authors discuss these questions. Their key substantive...