Venezuelan Insurgency, 1960-1968:
Venezuelan Insurgency, 1960-1968:

Author: H. Micheal Tarver

Publisher: Xlibris Corporation

Published: 2001-10-12

Total Pages: 194

ISBN-13: 1462834604

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Venezuelan Insurgency, 1960-1968: A Successful Failure examines and analyzes the Venezuelan Extreme Left and its activities from the first serious uprising against the government of Venezuelan President Rmulo Betancourt in April 1960 through the Venezuelan national elections of December 1968. As background, an examination of Venezuelan politics begins with the 1899 introduction to power by President Cipriano Castro in order to provide a framework to the development of the political environment from which the prominent insurgency and government leaders emerged. In addition, a summary examination of contemporary global insurgency and terrorism introduces the specific examination of the Venezuelan Extreme Left and the reasons why it viewed guerrilla warfare and urban terrorism as the paths necessary to achieve its goals. The work also undertakes an assessment of the Venezuelan peasantry in order to shed light on the reasons that, in general, they remained loyal to the Venezuelan government rather than support the Left. Finally, the present work presents some conclusions concerning the political impact of the insurgency movement on the Venezuelan democratic process.

Precarious Paths to Freedom
Precarious Paths to Freedom

Author: Aragorn Storm Miller

Publisher: UNM Press

Published: 2016-05-15

Total Pages: 302

ISBN-13: 0826356885

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Miller analyzes US-Venezuelan relations during the 1950s and 1960s as a case study for the broader political dynamics of the hemisphere and beyond during the critical period of the global Cold War. He addresses the perception that US foreign policy toward Latin America was an overwhelming failure in which initiatives intended to promote democracy and modernization, and to insulate the hemisphere from the ideological struggles of the global Cold War, reaped only authoritarian regimes, uneven and sluggish economic growth, and abstract debates over capitalism and communism that distracted attention from Latin America’s pressing socioeconomic problems. Precarious Paths to Freedom demonstrates that Washington rather achieved success by cultivating a partnership with a democratizing Venezuela. From 1958 onward US policymakers identified Venezuela as the crucial bulwark against political extremism and as the ideal partner in the creation of a modernized, prosperous, and pro-US Latin America.

Money in the Bank--Lessons Learned from Past Counterinsurgency (COIN) Operations
Money in the Bank--Lessons Learned from Past Counterinsurgency (COIN) Operations

Author: Angel Rabasa

Publisher: Rand Corporation

Published: 2007-09-06

Total Pages: 103

ISBN-13: 0833042831

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Six historic counterinsurgency (COIN) operations are examined to determine which tactics, techniques, and procedures led to success and which to failure. The Philippines, Algeria, Vietnam, El Salvador, Jammu and Kashmir, and Colombia were chosen for their varied characteristics relating to geography, historical era, outcome, type of insurgency faced, and level of U.S. involvement. Future U.S. COIN operations can learn from these past lessons.

A Hero's Curse
A Hero's Curse

Author: Kajsa Norman

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2017-05-17

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 1849049165

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A Hero's Curse is the story of the modern Venezuelans whose lives have taken shape in the shadow of Simón Bolívar and his most passionate disciple, Comandante Hugo Chávez. For nearly two hundred years Venezuela's political leaders have evoked the legacy of their liberator, Bolívar, to stir popular support. While Bolívar's heroic struggle helped free a continent, his affinity for dictatorial rule spawned a vicious cycle of liberation and tyranny that has always haunted Venezuela. Since Chávez's death, the battle for Venezuela's future has intensified. Amidst a collapsing economy, escalating violence, and shortages of basic goods, there are increasing calls for a change of leadership. Rivals for power compete in demonstrating to the masses that they are the new, true, Venezuelan hero come to set them free. Kajsa Norman chronicles the rise and fall of Chávez and the tragic impact of Venezuela's 'heroic' politics on ordinary citizens. The stage is set for yet another turn in Venezuela's cycle of perpetual liberation, with a new generation of leaders clamouring for the title of national hero.

Resisting Rebellion
Resisting Rebellion

Author: Anthony James Joes

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

Published: 2006-08-18

Total Pages: 364

ISBN-13: 9780813191706

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In Resisting Rebellion, Anthony James Joes explores insurgencies ranging across five continents and spanning more than two centuries. Analyzing examples from North and South America, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, he identifies recurrent patterns and offers useful lessons for future policymakers. Insurgencies arise from many sources of discontent, including foreign occupation, fraudulent elections, and religious persecution, but they also stem from ethnic hostilities, the aspirations of would-be elites, and traditions of political violence. Because insurgency is as much a political phenomenon as a military one, effective counterinsurgency requires a thorough understanding of the insurgents' motives and sources of support. Clear political aims must guide military action if a counterinsurgency is to be successful and prepare a lasting reconciliation within a deeply fragmented society. The most successful counterinsurgency campaign undertaken by the United States was the one against Philippine insurgents following the Spanish-American War. But even more instructive than successful counterinsurgencies are the persistent patterns of errors revealed by Joes's comparative study. Instances include the indiscriminate destructiveness displayed by the Japanese in China and the Soviets in Afghanistan, and the torture of suspected Muslim terrorists by members of the French Army in Algeria. Joes's comprehensive twofold approach to counterinsurgency is easily applied to the U.S. The first element, developing the strategic basis for victory, emphasizes creating a peaceful path to the redress of legitimate grievances, committing sufficient troops to the counterinsurgent operation, and isolating the conflict area from outside aid. The second element aims at marginalizing the insurgents and includes fair conduct toward civilians and prisoners, systematic intelligence gathering, depriving insurgents of weapons and food, separating insurgent leaders from their followers, and offering amnesty to all but the most incorrigible. Providing valuable insights into a world of conflict, Resisting Rebellion is a thorough and readable exploration of successes and failures in counterinsurgency's long history and a strategy for the future.

Hemispheric Alliances
Hemispheric Alliances

Author: Andrew J. Kirkendall

Publisher: UNC Press Books

Published: 2022-04-27

Total Pages: 399

ISBN-13: 1469668025

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Hemispheric foreign policy has waxed and waned since the Mexican War, and the Cold War presented both extraordinary promises and dangerous threats to U.S.–Latin American cooperation. In Hemispheric Alliances, Andrew J. Kirkendall examines the strengths and weaknesses of new models for U.S.–Latin American relations created by liberal Democrats who came to the fore during the Kennedy administration and retained significant influence until the Reagan era. Rather than exerting ironfisted power in Latin America, liberal Democrats urged Washington to be a moral rather than a militaristic leader in hemispheric affairs. Decolonization, President Eisenhower's missteps in Latin America, and the Cuban Revolution all played key roles in the Kennedy administration's Alliance for Progress, which liberal Democrats hailed as a new cornerstone for U.S.–Latin American foreign policy. During the Vietnam War era, liberal Democrats began to incorporate human rights more centrally into their agendas, using Latin America as the primary arena for these policies. During the long period of military dictatorship in much of Latin America and the Caribbean, liberal Democrats would see their policies dissolved by the Nixon, Reagan, and Bush administrations who favored militant containment of both communism and absolutism.

A Time to Stir
A Time to Stir

Author: Paul Cronin

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2018-01-09

Total Pages: 711

ISBN-13: 0231544332

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For seven days in April 1968, students occupied five buildings on the campus of Columbia University to protest a planned gymnasium in a nearby Harlem park, links between the university and the Vietnam War, and what they saw as the university’s unresponsive attitude toward their concerns. Exhilarating to some and deeply troubling to others, the student protests paralyzed the university, grabbed the world’s attention, and inspired other uprisings. Fifty years after the events, A Time to Stir captures the reflections of those who participated in and witnessed the Columbia rebellion. With more than sixty essays from members of the Columbia chapter of Students for a Democratic Society, the Students’ Afro-American Society, faculty, undergraduates who opposed the protests, “outside agitators,” and members of the New York Police Department, A Time to Stir sheds light on the politics, passions, and ideals of the 1960s. Moving beyond accounts from the student movement’s white leadership, this book presents the perspectives of black students, who were grappling with their uneasy integration into a supposedly liberal campus, as well as the views of women, who began to question their second-class status within the protest movement and society at large. A Time to Stir also speaks to the complicated legacy of the uprising. For many, the events at Columbia inspired a lifelong dedication to social causes, while for others they signaled the beginning of the chaos that would soon engulf the left. Taken together, these reflections present a nuanced and moving portrait that reflects the sense of possibility and excess that characterized the 1960s.

Crafting Civilian Control of the Military in Venezuela
Crafting Civilian Control of the Military in Venezuela

Author: Harold A. Trinkunas

Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press

Published: 2011-01-20

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13: 0807877034

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Unlike most other emerging South American democracies, Venezuela has not succumbed to a successful military coup d'etat during four decades of democratic rule. What drives armed forces to follow the orders of elected leaders? And how do emerging democracies gain that control over their military establishments? Harold Trinkunas answers these questions in an examination of Venezuela's transition to democracy following military rule and its attempts to institutionalize civilian control of the military over the past sixty years, a period that included three regime changes. Trinkunas first focuses on the strategic choices democratizers make about the military and how these affect the internal civil-military balance of power in a new regime. He then analyzes a regime's capacity to institutionalize civilian control, looking specifically at Venezuela's failures and successes in this arena during three periods of intense change: the October revolution (1945-48), the Pact of Punto Fijo period (1958-98), and the Fifth Republic under President Hugo Chavez (1998 to the present). Placing Venezuela in comparative perspective with Argentina, Chile, and Spain, Trinkunas identifies the bureaucratic mechanisms democracies need in order to sustain civilian authority over the armed forces.