From "Notes From a Subterranean Library in Oregon," a compilation of Ray Peat's newspaper letters and columns, compiled by T3Uncoupled (2023). Originally published 1983.

Ray Peat, "Under U.S. control", p. 46

Is it possible that our President has confused Central America with “Middle America,” with Iowa? This could explain his statements about “our front yard.” But it wouldn’t explain his fabrication of stories about “outside aggression.” What we are seeing now in Central America is not an “East-West” competition, but rather the consequence of a radical shift in U.S. policy which occurred in the spring of 1945. Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor Policy was moral and made economic sense for capitalist America. Roosevelt’s administration saw both the Soviet Union and Latin America as “vast markets” to be developed. With Roosevelt’s death, his dream of world peace based on trade and on justice as he understood it was replaced by a different ideology. The new policy was shaped largely by John Foster Dulles, who described himself as a “sadist” who “thirsts for confrontation” with the Soviets and with independence movements in Latin America. In 1945, the phrase “under U.S control” was reserved for private government memos. The present economic crisis is bringing that kind of thinking into the open. A few historians (and eventually journalists) were instrumental in educating the U.S. public about the meaning and origin of the Indo-China war. Similar work must now be done regarding Latin America.