Cooperating with the Colossus: A Social and Political History of US Military Bases in World War II Latin America

<p>Recorded on March 6, 2023 at UC Berkeley's Social Science Matrix, this "Authors Meet Critics" panel focused on <a href= "https://global.oup.com/academic/product/cooperating-with-the-colossus-9780197531877?cc=us&lang=en&"> <em>Cooperating with the Colossus: A Social and Political History of US Military Bases in World War II Latin America</em></a>, by <strong>Rebecca Herman</strong>, Assistant Professor of History at UC Berkeley. The recording also features a response by <strong>Julio Moreno</strong>, Professor of History at the University of San Francisco, and and <strong>José Juan Pérez Meléndez</strong>, Assistant Professor in Latin American and Caribbean History at UC Davis, and a Bridging the Divides Fellow at the Center for Puerto Rican Studies in Hunter College. <strong>Elena Schneider</strong>, Associate Professor in the UC Berkeley Department of History, moderated. This panel was co-sponsored by the UC Berkeley Department of History.</p> <p><strong>About the Book</strong></p> <p>During the Second World War, the United States built over two hundred defense installations on sovereign soil in Latin America in the name of cooperation in hemisphere defense. Predictably, it proved to be a fraught affair. Despite widespread acclaim for Pan-American unity with the Allied cause, defense construction incited local conflicts that belied the wartime rhetoric of fraternity and equality. "Cooperating with the Colossus" reconstructs the history of US basing in World War II Latin America, from the elegant chambers of the American foreign ministries to the cantinas, courtrooms, plazas, and brothels surrounding US defense sites.</p> <p>Foregrounding the wartime experiences of Brazil, Cuba, and Panama, the book considers how Latin American leaders and diplomats used basing rights as bargaining chips to advance their nation-building agendas with US resources, while limiting overreach by the “Colossus of the North” as best they could. Yet conflicts on the ground over labor rights, discrimination, sex, and criminal jurisdict