Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Britain, The United States, and the Bolivian National Revolution, 1952–1956

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Britain and the Growth of US Hegemony in Twentieth-Century Latin America

Part of the book series: Britain and the World ((BAW))

  • 231 Accesses

Abstract

Britain’s long-standing commercial and financial relationship with Bolivia faced a direct challenge when a revolutionary nationalist regime came to power in 1952. British government and business soon recognised the value of supporting the new government, whose inherent pragmatism ensured that the status quo would be preserved. The United States simultaneously supported the Bolivian government, but through very different means and for a different rationale: the provision of extensive financial aid, given the primacy of Cold War concerns. Despite this mutuality of interests in preserving the regime in power, there was limited, if any, cooperation between Britain and the United States during the first term of revolutionary government. Each pursued its own strategy, conditioned by a particular set of post-war foreign policy priorities that reflected both regional and global circumstances.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. 1.

    Rory Miller, Britain and Latin America in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. London: Longman, 1993; Victor Bulmer-Thomas (ed.), Britain and Latin America: A Changing Relationship. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989; D.C.M. Platt, Latin America and British Trade, 1806–1914. London: Adam & Charles Black, 1972.

  2. 2.

    Leslie Bethell, ‘Britain and Latin America in Historical Perspective’, in Bulmer-Thomas (ed.), Britain and Latin America, 1–24; J. Valerie Fifer, Bolivia: Land, Location, and Politics Since 1825. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972, in particular, chapter 5.

  3. 3.

    As in the survey texts on Britain’s relationship with Latin America, Bolivia does not feature noticeably, if at all, in any discussion on informal empire. Bolivia is entirely absent from P.J. Cain & A.G. Hopkins, British Imperialism, 1688–2015. Third edition. Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2016; Alan Knight, ‘Latin America’, in Judith M. Brown & Wm. Roger Louis (eds.), Oxford History of the British Empire. Vol. IV: The Twentieth Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999, 623–42.

  4. 4.

    Harold Blakemore, From the Pacific to La Paz: The Antofagasta (Chili) and Bolivia Railway Company 1888–1988. London: Lester Crook, 1990.

  5. 5.

    A useful collection on the Bolivian national revolution is Merilee Grindle & Pilar Domingo (eds.), Proclaiming Revolution: Bolivia in Comparative Perspective. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 2003.

  6. 6.

    Victor Paz Estenssoro, El pensamiento revolucionario de Paz Estenssoro. La Paz: Secretaría Ejecutiva del Comité Político Nacional del M.N.R., 1954, 43–4. See also Rory Miller’s chapter in this volume.

  7. 7.

    Kenneth Lehman, ‘Braked but not Broken: The United States and Revolutionaries’, in Grindle & Domingo (eds.), Proclaiming Revolution, 97.

  8. 8.

    Blakemore, From the Pacific to La Paz, 51–4; Fifer, Land, Location, and Politics, 247–9.

  9. 9.

    Lehman, Bolivia and the United States: A Limited Partnership. Athens GA: University of Georgia Press, 1999, 66–74. About 20 per cent of the shareholders in the Patiño interests, one of the ‘Big Three’ tin producers, whose properties were nationalised after 1952, were North American. See James Dunkerley, Rebellion in the Veins: Political Struggle in Bolivia, 1952–1982. London: Verso, 1984, 55.

  10. 10.

    John Hillman, ‘Bolivia and British Tin Policy, 1939–1945’, Journal of Latin American Studies, 22: 2 (1990), 289–315, in particular 291–3, 297–302; Editorial, ‘U.S. Buys Bolivian Tin Ore’, Engineering and Mining Journal, 141: 12 (1940), 31, cited by Hillman, ‘Bolivia and British Tin Policy’, 301–2.

  11. 11.

    Glenn J. Dorn, ‘Pushing Tin: U.S.-Bolivian Relations and the Coming of the National Revolution’, Diplomatic History, 35: 2 (2011), 203–28.

  12. 12.

    Lehman, Bolivia and the United States, 89–90.

  13. 13.

    United States Agency for International Development, Overseas Loans and Grants and Assistance from International Organizations, Obligations and Loan Authorizations, July 1, 1945-June 30, 1967 (March 29, 1968), table 1, cited by Cole Blasier, ‘The United States and the Revolution’, in James M. Malloy & Richard S. Thorn (eds.), Beyond the Revolution: Bolivia since 1952. Pittsburgh PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1971, 53.

  14. 14.

    In addition to Blasier and Lehman, mentioned above, see Thomas C. Field, Jr., From Development to Dictatorship: Bolivia and the Alliance for Progress in the Kennedy Era. Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press, 2014; Lehman, ‘Revolutions and Attributions: Making Sense of Eisenhower Administration Policies in Bolivia and Guatemala’, Diplomatic History, 21: 2 (1997), 185–213; Kevin A. Young, Blood of the Earth: Resource Nationalism, Revolution, and Empire in Bolivia. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2017; Stephen Zunes, ‘The United States and Bolivia: The Taming of a Revolution, 1952–1957’, Latin American Perspectives, 28: 5 (2001), 33–49. James Siekmeier is almost a lone voice in arguing that a US fear of economic nationalism was more important than the threat of communism both in his earlier work, Aid, Nationalism and Inter-American Relations: Guatemala, Bolivia, and the United States, 1945–1961. Lewiston NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 1999, and more recently in The Bolivian Revolution and the United States, 1952 to the Present. University Park PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2011.

  15. 15.

    Lehman, Bolivia and the United States, 112–13; see also Blasier, ‘The United States and the Revolution’, 98–105.

  16. 16.

    Mary Ann Heiss, Empire and Nationhood: The United States, Great Britain, and Iranian Oil, 1950–1954. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997, 4

  17. 17.

    Nicholas Owen, ‘Britain and Decolonization: The Labour Governments and the Middle East, 1945–51’, in Michael J. Cohen and Martin Kolinsky (eds.), Demise of the British Empire in the Middle East: Britain’s Responses to Nationalist Movements, 1943–55. London: Frank Cass, 1998, 19.

  18. 18.

    Blakemore, From the Pacific to La Paz, 263; Ian Thomson, ‘The Ferrocarril de Guaqui a La Paz and its Motive Power’, Locomotives International, 9 (1991), 2–10.

  19. 19.

    Owen, ‘Britain and Decolonization’, 19.

  20. 20.

    Bethell, ‘Britain and Latin America’, 17–22.

  21. 21.

    Miller, Britain and Latin America, 231–2.

  22. 22.

    British Embassy (La Paz), ‘Bolivia: Annual Review for 1952’, 20 January 1953, FO 371/103625, UK National Archives (hereafter UKNA).

  23. 23.

    Geoffrey H.S. Jackson, Minute, 10 April 1952, FO 371/97702, UKNA.

  24. 24.

    Thomas J. Maleady (Chargé at La Paz) to Secretary of State, 21 March 1952, Department of State Decimal File (hereafter DS), 824.2544/3-2152, Record Group 59 (hereafter RG 59), United States National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland (hereafter NARA); Hugo Ballivián (Bolivian President) to Harry S. Truman (translation), 22 March 1952, DS 824.2544/3-2252, RG 59, NARA. This is developed further in Olivia Saunders, ‘Preserving the Status Quo: Britain, the United States, and Bolivian Tin, 1946–56’, International History Review, 38: 3 (2016), 551–72. See also Dorn, ‘Pushing Tin’.

  25. 25.

    J.B.S. Pedler, Minute, 10 April 1952, FO 371/97702, UKNA.

  26. 26.

    Jackson, Minute, 10 April 1952, FO 371/97702, UKNA.

  27. 27.

    See ‘Editorial Note’, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954. The American Republics, Vol. IV. Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1983, 490.

  28. 28.

    Glenn J. Dorn, The Truman Administration and Bolivia: Making the World Safe for Liberal Constitutional Oligarchy. University Park PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2011, 153; Gabriel González Videla to Harry S. Truman, 6 December 1951, Embajada de Chile en EE.UU. Oficios confidenciales recibidos del Ministerio de RR.EE. de Chile, Box 3096, Archivo General Histórico del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Santiago, Chile.

  29. 29.

    Blasier, ‘The United States and the Revolution’, 63, citing New York Times, 20 April 1952.

  30. 30.

    See, for example, La Razón, 1 June 1951, 3 June 1951, 19 June 1951; see also the cartoon, ‘Mala política’, El Diario, 14 May 1952.

  31. 31.

    The Times, 10 April, 12 April, 14 April 1952.

  32. 32.

    Sir Henry Mack (British ambassador in Buenos Aires) to Sir Anthony Eden (British foreign secretary), 18 April 1952, FO 371/97702, UKNA.

  33. 33.

    Jackson, Minute, 15 April 1952, FO 371/97702, UKNA.

  34. 34.

    British embassy (La Paz) to Foreign Office, 22 April 1952; Jackson, Minute, 26 April 1952, FO 371/97702, UKNA.

  35. 35.

    Robert Cecil (head of American Department), Minute, 28 April 1952; these sentiments were then conveyed to the embassy in La Paz in a Foreign Office telegram, 1 May 1952, FO 371/97702/AX1015/16, UKNA.

  36. 36.

    State Department to US embassy (La Paz), 21 April 1952, DS 724.02/4-2152, RG 59, NARA; Central Intelligence Agency, Intelligence Memorandum, ‘Increased Instability in Latin America’, 24 April 1952, p. 2. Accessed online: https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP91T01172R000300300008-5.pdf; CIA, Current Intelligence Digest, 22 April 1952, p. 12. Accessed online: https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP79T01146A000900160001-6.pdf.

  37. 37.

    Lomax to Eden, 5 May 1952, FO 371/97703, UKNA.

  38. 38.

    Memorandum, ‘Diplomatic Relations with Bolivia’, Secretary of State to the President, 22 May 1952, State Department Subject File, Assistant Secretary of State for Latin American Affairs (Edward G. Miller), 1949–1953, Box 2 of 14, Lot 53D26, RG 59, NARA.

  39. 39.

    British embassy (Washington) to Foreign Office, 22 May 1952, FO 371/97703, UKNA.

  40. 40.

    State Department to US embassy (Santiago), 20 May 1952, 724.02/5-2052; similar views were expressed by the US ambassador earlier in the month: W.B. Cobb to State Department, 9 May 1952, DS 724.00/5-952, RG 59, NARA.

  41. 41.

    Cecil, Minute, 26 May 1952; Roderick Barclay (assistant under-secretary for foreign affairs), Minutes, 26 May 1952 and 30 May 1952, FO 371/97704, UKNA.

  42. 42.

    Lomax to Eden, 4 June 1952, FO 371/97705, UKNA.

  43. 43.

    Rory Miller, ‘British Free-Standing Companies on the West Coast of South America’, in Mira Wilkins and Harm Schröter (eds.), The Free-Standing Company in the World Economy, 1830–1996. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998, 218–52; Brian Fawcett, Railways of the Andes. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1963, 131.

  44. 44.

    See, for example, Sergio Almaraz Paz, El poder y la caída: el estaño en la historia de Bolivia. Fourth edition. La Paz: Los Amigos del Libro, 1980, 41–54; Guillermo Bedregal, Fundición de estaño en Bolivia. La Paz: Editorial 16 de julio, 1964.

  45. 45.

    This is explored in greater detail in Saunders, ‘Preserving the Status Quo’, 10–13.

  46. 46.

    Clifford Waite (Williams , Harvey) to E. Muir (Ministry of Materials), 4 June 1952; Pedler, Minutes, 6 June 1952; Jackson, Minutes, 7 June 1952, FO 371/97712, UKNA.

  47. 47.

    Lomax to Manuel Barrau (Bolivian Mining Corporation, COMIBOL), 31 December 1952; Pablo Biggeman (COMIBOL ) to Williams, Harvey, 31 December 1952, Williams, Harvey Correspondence, Folder #123, Archivo de la Corporación Minera de Bolivia, El Alto, Bolivia.

  48. 48.

    John A. Robinson, Minute, 24 January 1953, FO 371/103643, UKNA; C. Waite et al., State Department Memorandum of Conversation, 3 February 1953, DS 824.2544/2-353, RG 59, NARA.

  49. 49.

    ‘Seeking Agreement on Bolivian Tin’, The Times, 17 January 1953.

  50. 50.

    The Times, 28 January 1953.

  51. 51.

    Victor Perowne (head of South American Department), Memorandum: ‘Bones of Contention’ in Latin America, annexed to Eden to HM Representatives in Latin America, 22 April 1943, FO 371/33929, UKNA.

  52. 52.

    Terence Garvey (Foreign Office), Minute, 2 September 1953, FO 371/103639, UKNA.

  53. 53.

    Winthrop R. Wright, British-Owned Railways in Argentina: Their Effect on Economic Nationalism, 1854–1948. Austin TX: University of Texas Press, 1974, 257.

  54. 54.

    Bethell , ‘Britain and Latin America’, 20. The agreement was reached in February 1947 but the associated trade pact was not signed until February 1948, with the final transfer of the lines taking place on 1 March 1948: see Wright, British-Owned Railways, 255–6.

  55. 55.

    The Times, 12 March 1947.

  56. 56.

    Sir John Lomax, The Diplomatic Smuggler. London: Arthur Baker, 1965, 263.

  57. 57.

    Jackson, Minute, 10 April 1952, FO 371/97702, UKNA; S. Ainsworth (Peruvian Corporation manager in La Paz) to F.F. Hixson (Representative, Peruvian Corporation, Lima), 13 April 1952; ‘Situation in Bolivia, 1951’, Ainsworth to the Director Representative, 26 April 1952, file B6/11D, Peruvian Corporation Archives, UCL Special Collections, London.

  58. 58.

    Lomax to Eden, 4 June 1952, FO 371/97705; Lomax to Garvey, 29 October 1953, FO 371/103639, UKNA.

  59. 59.

    Dunkerley, Rebellion in the Veins, 75.

  60. 60.

    See, for example, the statement of the MNR Right published in September 1952, cited in James Malloy, Bolivia: The Uncompleted Revolution. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1970, 226.

  61. 61.

    Dunkerley, Rebellion in the Veins, 75–7.

  62. 62.

    British Embassy (La Paz) to Bolivian Ministry for Foreign Affairs, 4 May 1954; British Embassy (La Paz) to Bolivian Ministry for Foreign Affairs, 2 June 1954, file LE-3-R-281, Archivo del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, La Paz, Bolivia; ‘Report on Labour Affairs. Bolivia. August, September and October, 1954’, LAB 13/1082, UKNA.

  63. 63.

    Dunkerley, Rebellion in the Veins, 75.

  64. 64.

    ‘The Peruvian Corporation Limited’, Financial Times, 20 December 1954.

  65. 65.

    N. Gordon Lennox, Minute, 31 January 1955, FO 371/114507.

  66. 66.

    G. Earl Sanders, ‘The Quiet Experiment in American Diplomacy: An Interpretative Essay on United States Aid to the Bolivian Revolution, The Americas, 33: 1 (1976), 25–49.

  67. 67.

    John Foster Dulles to Harold E. Stassen (Director of the Foreign Operations Administration), 2 September 1953, DS 724.5-MSP/9-253, RG 59, NARA.

  68. 68.

    Lehman, ‘Revolutions and Attributions’, 201.

  69. 69.

    Lehman, Bolivia and the United States, 110.

  70. 70.

    Lomax to Eden 28 November. 1953, FO 371/103633, UKNA.

  71. 71.

    See, for example, Stephen Sándor John, Bolivia’s Radical Tradition: Permanent Revolution in the Andes. Tucson AZ: University of Arizona Press, 2011. Sándor John focuses on the Trotskyist experience.

  72. 72.

    Morgan C.G. Man, Minute, 24 November 1953, FO 371/103626, UKNA.

  73. 73.

    M.F. Young, Minute, 11 November 1953, FO 371/103633, UKNA.

  74. 74.

    Chancery (British embassy, La Paz) to Information Research Department (hereafter IRD), 21 April 1955, FO 371/114508, UKNA.

  75. 75.

    Chancery (British embassy, La Paz) to IRD, 15 July 1955, FO 371/114508, UKNA. The COB was the principal trade union organisation in Bolivia.

  76. 76.

    Lomax to Eden, 19 October 1953, FO 371/103633, UKNA.

  77. 77.

    John H. Lewen, Minute, 24 November 1953, FO 371/103626, UKNA.

  78. 78.

    Lomax to Marquess of Salisbury (acting foreign secretary), 29 September 1953, FO 371/103626, UKNA.

  79. 79.

    Lomax to Eden, 24 October 1953, FO 371/103626, UKNA.

  80. 80.

    J.H. Adam Watson (counsellor, British embassy, Washington DC) to Garvey, 27 October 1953, FO 371/103626; Lomax to Salisbury, 29 September 1953; Young, Minute, 26 October 1953, FO 371/103626, UKNA.

  81. 81.

    Garvey to Watson, 9 December 1953, FO 371/103626, UKNA.

  82. 82.

    Lomax, The Diplomatic Smuggler, 264–75.

  83. 83.

    Bethell, ‘Historical Perspective’; Miller, Britain and Latin America.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK

    Olivia Saunders

Authors
  1. Olivia Saunders
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Olivia Saunders .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK

    Thomas C. Mills

  2. University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK

    Rory M. Miller

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Saunders, O. (2020). Britain, The United States, and the Bolivian National Revolution, 1952–1956. In: Mills, T.C., Miller, R.M. (eds) Britain and the Growth of US Hegemony in Twentieth-Century Latin America. Britain and the World. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48321-0_11

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48321-0_11

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-48320-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-48321-0

  • eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation