Virginia History Textbooks and the Cold War in Latin America
While in high school, my Cold War education began and ended at the idea that the United States and the Soviet Union fought (without actually fighting) over ideologies of communism and capitalism. The Soviet Union lost, the Berlin Wall fell, and the United States emerged as the sole global superpower. This narrative seemed true; I mean, I read about it in my History textbooks and my teachers taught according to the textbook. Why would this not be what the Cold War was about?
What this narrative forgot, however, was the ways in which the Cold War gravely impacted other regions on a global scale. While the Korean and Vietnam Wars remain sore subjects in United States history today, the relationship between the United States and Latin America are rarely considered in the larger repercussions of the Cold War. The United States actively interfered with, intervened, and injected itself into Latin American political, economic, social, and cultural spheres and played a significant role in the thousands of human rights abuses that struck Latin American countries throughout the Cold War. How are public school state textbooks able to balance the narrative of US exceptionalism following a 'victory' in the Cold War with the 'other side of the story' that implicates the United States with hundreds of thousands of disappeared, kidnapped, and murdered victims at the hand of communist fears?
This project investigates Virginia-approved History textbooks for middle and high school students throughout the state to analyze how the United States in the Latin American Cold War. Through understanding to what extent schools acknowledge the United States' role in Latin America, either as a periphery actor or one directly intervening, we can begin to question the narratives encouraged by textbooks as well as the difficulties challenges narratives of United States exceptionalism.
This project is particularly envisioned for teachers who are teaching these textbooks, showcasing the short fallings of some of this information and arguing that the Cold War in Latin America remains undeveloped, unorganized, and incomplete in these textbooks. Some tools demonstrate how these textbooks present partial, privileged, and selective information, while others allow teachers and their students to interact with this history and think about how a different presentation of this history might elicit different questions and concerns. While primarily a pedagogical tool explaining how to complicate the narrative of 'truth' determined by textbooks, this project also speaks to challenging the United States exceptionalism persistent and dominant in our public school education.
We must also grapple with the ways in which the United States caused pain and suffering in order to present a more realistic historical narrative of this country. This is the latest attempt to deconstruct the myth of centralized United States nationalism and instead encourage questions about the questionable and self-interested actions and behaviors of United States leaders. Explore the different ways to challenge our assumptions and our memory of the past.
What this narrative forgot, however, was the ways in which the Cold War gravely impacted other regions on a global scale. While the Korean and Vietnam Wars remain sore subjects in United States history today, the relationship between the United States and Latin America are rarely considered in the larger repercussions of the Cold War. The United States actively interfered with, intervened, and injected itself into Latin American political, economic, social, and cultural spheres and played a significant role in the thousands of human rights abuses that struck Latin American countries throughout the Cold War. How are public school state textbooks able to balance the narrative of US exceptionalism following a 'victory' in the Cold War with the 'other side of the story' that implicates the United States with hundreds of thousands of disappeared, kidnapped, and murdered victims at the hand of communist fears?
This project investigates Virginia-approved History textbooks for middle and high school students throughout the state to analyze how the United States in the Latin American Cold War. Through understanding to what extent schools acknowledge the United States' role in Latin America, either as a periphery actor or one directly intervening, we can begin to question the narratives encouraged by textbooks as well as the difficulties challenges narratives of United States exceptionalism.
This project is particularly envisioned for teachers who are teaching these textbooks, showcasing the short fallings of some of this information and arguing that the Cold War in Latin America remains undeveloped, unorganized, and incomplete in these textbooks. Some tools demonstrate how these textbooks present partial, privileged, and selective information, while others allow teachers and their students to interact with this history and think about how a different presentation of this history might elicit different questions and concerns. While primarily a pedagogical tool explaining how to complicate the narrative of 'truth' determined by textbooks, this project also speaks to challenging the United States exceptionalism persistent and dominant in our public school education.
We must also grapple with the ways in which the United States caused pain and suffering in order to present a more realistic historical narrative of this country. This is the latest attempt to deconstruct the myth of centralized United States nationalism and instead encourage questions about the questionable and self-interested actions and behaviors of United States leaders. Explore the different ways to challenge our assumptions and our memory of the past.
This transcript, taken from a meeting between Argentine Foreign Minister Admiral Cesar Augusto Guzzetti and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger on June 10, 1976, shows Kissinger telling this Argentine diplomat that in order to counteract terrorism, "if there are things that have to be done, you should do them quickly." Through this 'green light,' the United States became implicated in the eight year Argentine military junta that kidnapped, tortured, and disappeared up to 30,000 people during the Cold War.
How can we reconcile this truth with the ways in which the Cold War in Latin America is taught to middle and high schoolers? What can documents like this one do to nuance static portrayals and instructions of history?Explore more here:
“Memorandum of Conversation,” June 10, 1976. The National Security Archive. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB133/19760610%20Memorandum%20of%20Conversation%20clean.pdf.