Aragorn Storm Miller. Precarious Paths to Freedom

In Precarious Paths to Freedom: The United States, Venezuela, and the Latin American Cold War, Aragorn Storm Miller focuses on the Cold War from 1958 to 1968, when democratic Venezuela withstood armed attacks first from Venezuelan conservatives allied with Rafael Trujillo, who was a military dictator of the Dominican Republic, and then from Venezuelan guerrillas allied with Fidel Castro. With the support of the U.S., Venezuela survived and became a model for progressive governments in line with the goals of the Alliance for Progress. Miller argues that Venezuela was a pivotal linchpin for the hemisphere, challenging the thesis that the U.S. only preferred dictatorships, but he also concedes that Venezuela’s democratic survival was an anomaly. Miller points out that President Dwight D. Eisenhower, under the influence of his brother Milton S. Eisenhower, had begun to embrace some of the reforms that are more identified with John F. Kennedy’s government. If Miller recognizes some continuity in the federal government’s idealistic Latin American policy between Eisenhower and Kennedy, he minimizes the decade’s importance in spawning the military dictatorships that froze many Latin American progressives out of power in the 1970s.

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