The Dictator Next Door: The Good Neighbor Policy and the Trujillo Regime in the Dominican Republic, 1930-1945 (American Encounters/Global Interactions)

This book is very informative on the history of my beloved country. Mr. Roorda did extensive research regarding the history of the Domincan Republic which makes it essential to fully understand the reasons behind my uncle's way of governing. Americans still to this day need to better understand the way, the hispanic mind thinks, and the way we are! Once americans understand this, they will be better informed when they opiniate on latin american affairs. When you research the past before my uncle, it becomes quite clear the reason that when you read into the inaffective governments before him, nothing was accomplished. How many weak Ceo's in American Corporations have been successful? My uncle built a country out of manure! clear and simple! Mr. Roorda has my compliments.It will provide a better understanding to Dominican history, for individuals who have a love of world history. Mr. Roorda states in the begining of the book, that my uncle made it difficult for American Companies to do business in the Dominican Republic, of course! his main concern was for the best interest of his country, period! so, Mr. Roorda, my compliments.Sincerely and Respectfully,Danilo Lynen Trujillo

If one is seeking, as I was, to learn about the impact of the Trujillo dictatorship or U.S. policies of the time on the people of the Dominican Republic, this is not the book for it. Instead, the author’s focus is almost entirely on Franklin Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor Policy and how that policy was coopted by Trujillo for his own personal ends.One can trace an emotional arc over the course of the book. In the first four chapters (of eight), the author addresses his subject with a fair degree of objectivity. Chapter Four, on ‘Dictatorship and Diplomacy in the Public Eye’, is the best in the book. Among other things, in this chapter the author describes how Trujillo’s “mimicry of U.S. diplomatic and political projects” helped him gain friends in high U.S. places. The author’s research and description of how 20th century nationalist leaders used mimicry to gain an advantage over former colonizers is particularly useful. He circles back to this theme at the end of Chapter Six in one of the more effective passages in the book’s second half.In between, though, in Chapter Five the author deals with the ‘Haitian Massacre of 1937’. With this discussion he stirs himself into a bitter mood from which he never recovers. This might not be a problem except that most of the rest of the book deals with the responses by Roosevelt and his successors, as manifested in Latin America, to the threats to the United States from the Nazi and Soviet regimes. The author doesn’t seem to take those threats seriously, and this in turn undermines his argument for a better, if undefined, alternative approach to policymaking.Finally, the author does a disservice by misstating the U.S. Constitution’s formula on the setting of U.S. foreign policy. To cite but one example, he writes that “the State Department’s constitutional authority over U.S. foreign policy does not always give it the power to shape the gravitational forces at work in every set of bilateral relations.” The Constitution assigns no such authority to the State Department. Instead, it grants the President power and responsibility to set both foreign and defense policy, and the challenge for the President of balancing competing or incompatible interests in the foreign policy and defense realms is a permanent condition. Rather than wish away this reality, the author would have done his readers a better service by providing a sense of what he would have advised a President to do in light of the different opportunities and threats that the United States was facing during the years of the Good Neighbor Policy and the early Cold War.

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I'm torn about giving this book 2 stars. It's obviously well-researched by someone who's spent a lot of time thinking about the subject but it's not the story of Dictator Trujillo or the Dominican Republic or even a story at all -- there is no narrative. It's a book about policy written for policy wonks. It is not a coherent history, but rather an extensive thesis on how the different perceived goals of the military and state department interwoven with the personal biases of individuals create policy, using the Dominican Republic as a case study. It questions the perceived wisdom that propping up dictators and strong men in non-democratic nations at least create a framework of stability that benefits a country, if not the individuals within a country.Recommended as a sleep aid because it's the driest thing I've read in a year.

WOW, informative. Good info

There are very few actually good readable books on the Caribbean islands. There are even fewer books on the Dominican republic and Haiti. The only books that come to mind besides this one are `Why the Cocks fight' by Wucker and `death of a dictator' by Diederich. This book is a very good account of the early years of Trujillo and his relations with America. Trujillo is best remembered for the massacre of the Haitians, immigrants who had invaded his country. Other topics are covered in detail including the Jewish refugees, WWII and FDR interest in the Caribbean. An essential history of American involvement and the history of this important country.

Eric Paul Roorda's book is a very interesting study in how well-intentioned U.S. policy backfired. Beginning with Hoover and continuing with FDR, the U.S. tried to be a "good neighbor" to Latin American nations. In other words, the U.S. ceased to intervene at the drop of a hat. In the case of the Dominican Republic, this new policy allowed a ruthless military dictator with fascist tendencies, Rafael Trujillo, to seize power. Despite warnings from those in the know, the U.S. held fast to its non-intervention policy and allowed Trujillo to hold power for years. The book documents all of this as well as Trujillo's well-organized and continual lobbying effort to gain the approval from U.S. officials that he craved. I had thought for a long time that we should stay out of the business of other nations, but this book certainly casts doubt on the wisdom of that approach. Highly recommended.