User:Dhartung/SOTA

School of the Americas

Notes and observations from The U.S. Army School of the Americas and U.S. National Interests in the 20th Century, a Master's Thesis in History by Carlton T. Fox, Jr.

History

• Began as counter to German/Italian and other European military missions and training efforts in LatAm
• Monroe Doctrine as primary initial motivator
• Hemispheric Defense as primary doctrinal motivator post-WWII

Primary training missions related to creating appropriate doctrine for use of provided equipment

• Rio Treaty enjoined OAS members from threatening others, US from helping

Result left domestic operations by default

• late 50s - Fulbright hearings downgraded risks of direct Soviet interference

Army doctrine shifted to anti-Communism

• 1961 - Counter-insurgency training

Special Warfare School prepared new courseware

coincided with Vietnam era, 1961-late 70s

Subsided as counter-insurgency waned as US doctrine

Key Insight

• Professionalized military may be _more_ likely to have contempt for civilian rule
• Professionalization of political class began with IRI/NDI funding under Reagan

Marked decline in political instability

Primary Sources

• PBSUCCESS State cables
• PBSUCCESS invasion plan and outcome - focus on air force

• War College paper: Hot Wars
• Fishel - Impact of SOA on Host Nation Militaries
• [1] 1961 counterinsurgency project director
• [2]
• ADELANTE Final
• [3] infamous graduates chart
• [4] versiosn of 100-5 field manual -- likely training basis in 1950 was 100-5 edition of 1949
• Guatemala Documentation Project
• Statecraft & Unconventional Warfare