Air University Review, July-August 1986
Air power pioneers, World Wars I and II, Korea, Vietnam, Air Force doctrine, military reform, SDI, Soviet capabilities—we’ve focused on a good many themes in past issues of this Review. This time, it is Latin America—but with an ironic twist.
Since the late 1940s, Air University Review has published, in addition to its English edition for U.S. Air Force professionals, two foreign-language editions—in Latin American Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese—which have been distributed to Latin American air force members and institutions. The purposes of these editions? To enhance hemispheric security and promote friendly inter-American relations. At a time when our nation's political and military leaders are giving unusual attention to those same concerns, our objectives seem right on target. However, as we publish this issue of the English-edition Review—our first concentrated on Latin America and U.S. hemispheric interests—the Review has been informed of a 65 percent cut in its publishing budget—a cut so drastic that its Latin American editions will be eliminated unless a new purse opens up. Thus, our Latin American readers may never read the articles in this issue. Así es la vida.
Perennially, in the much broader spheres of U.S. policy and attitudes, we North Americans have tended to ignore our southern neighbor states unless the status quo in one of them seems likely to be upset. We know vaguely that many people live in Latin America, yet seldom do we realize that by the year 2000—now less than fifteen years away—Latin America’s population should reach more than 630 million people, while North Americans (in both Canada and the United States) will be considerably less than half that in number (approximating 275 million). Insulated by other, more immediate crises in our lives, we applaud Lady Liberty's engraved message during a weekend and fret about "too many illegal aliens" on Monday morning. We may be aware that some Latin American countries have difficult problems to solve: large national debts, dependency on the market prices of a few commodities or minerals; widespread poverty, illiteracy, and malnutrition (in some cases, due to inequitable distribution of wealth); and social unrest that one day could ignite into violent revolution intended to effect changes. But we have our own national problems to worry about—our own national debt and trade imbalance concerns, our own farmers' crisis, our own unemployed and half -schooled and hungry and dissatisfied. To that list, add our anxieties about continuing crime, widespread drug addiction, terrorist acts, and the Soviet threat. Can we take on the troubles of other nations, even when they are geographically close to us? Should we?
It's much easier to look down—pretending that we haven't been aware of our neighbor's situations, assuming a position of a woe-begotten superpower whose next steps forward in human history have become truly arduous, perhaps assessing our Hispanic (and Anglo) hemispheric partners as less important than more powerful, more affluent nations farther from our shores. Withdrawal from long-term dilemmas, waiting for the chips to fall before paying attention, and reacting to events rather than shaping the future are simple endeavors. They cost no money, no time, no adrenaline, and no talent. They allow us the luxury of self-absorption; free our time and funds and creative drive for application to societal needs, technological systems, and bureaucratic empires in our own land; and offer us manifold opportunities for both demoralizing woe-gathering and heartwarming, self-congratulatory nationalism—take your pick. Our vision can be limited—centered on the Now and the Here-at-Home and the Bucks-in-our-Pockets.
We are free to choose this posture—not an unfamiliar one, some Latin American observers might say. In our relations with our neighbors, we as a nation can reject long-term vision, selfless beneficence, international leadership, and the old-fashioned Yankee "can-do-it" spirit. Then, when something drastic happens in Latin America—some cataclysmic event that makes our page-one headlines—we shall be shocked. With eyes suddenly alert, we shall search the landscape before us, once again hoping to find the tools, vehicles, and paths needed to remedy that situation—at least for awhile.
It is tough to see the big picture each day and to work to improve it, bit by bit, over time. Do we want to be the visionaries who take on such commitments?
Janice M. Beck
Disclaimer
The conclusions and opinions expressed in this document are those of the author cultivated in the freedom of expression, academic environment of Air University. They do not reflect the official position of the U.S. Government, Department of Defense, the United States Air Force or the Air University.
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