60th Anniversary Main | 1963-1979 | 1980 – 1999 | 2000 - Present
The early years
Just before the United States entered World War II, the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration established the U.S. Caribbean Defense Command (1941-1947), a prototype unified command, to defend the Panama Canal and surrounding area. After the war, U.S. military planners adopted a national security plan that transformed the wartime organization into the U.S. Caribbean Command (1947-1963). Located in Panama, the U.S. Caribbean Command’s mission changed over time. Importantly, during the 1950s, the command assumed broad responsibilities for inter-American security cooperation. Yet U.S. officials also removed the Caribbean basin from the U.S. Caribbean Command’s area of focus. Therefore, in the early 1960s, the John F. Kennedy administration decided to reorganize and rename the command.
1963 - 1965
In June 1963, the Department of Defense changed the name of the U.S. Caribbean Command to U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM). Military officials simultaneously elevated the Commander’s authorized billet from Lieutenant General to General. After the Panamanian flag riots in January 1964, the Lyndon B. Johnson administration announced its intention to renegotiate the Hay/Bunau‑Varilla Treaty (1903) governing the U.S. presence on the isthmus. Treaty talks dominated U.S.-Panamanian relations for the next 13 years.
Honduran soldiers, the first troops of the Inter-American Peace Force, arrive to assume peacekeeping duties in the Dominican Republic, 1965. (Source: U.S. Information Agency, NARA)
1965 - 1969
In April 1965, the Johnson administration ordered U.S. forces into the Dominican Republic to restore internal order and evacuate American citizens. Soon thereafter, international peacekeepers, including troops from Brazil, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Paraguay arrived in the country.
In October 1967, U.S.-trained Bolivian Special Forces captured and killed Argentine-Cuban revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara.
In 1969, a border dispute erupted between El Salvador and Honduras. Responding to the crisis, USSOUTHCOM helped deploy international observers to Central America. The command also provided disaster relief to Chile, Colombia, and Honduras.
Resources:
US Army Center Of Military History Book: Dominican Republic Intervention - US Army Center of Military History
U.S. Marine Corps Operations in the Dominican Republic 1965 - U.S. Marine Corps History Division
U.S. Navy Article on Dominican Republic Operations
1970 - 1974
Following a comprehensive review of Department of Defense organization and management, the Secretary of Defense recommended disestablishing USSOUTHCOM. President Richard M. Nixon vetoed the plan in July 1971. In 1971, U.S. and Panamanian diplomats began formal negotiations of a new canal treaty. The bilateral talks, however, produced few immediate results. The Southern Command Television Network expanded its lineup in 1972 to include Monday Night Football. The television broadcasts and other USSOUTHCOM media products served as important vehicles for cultural transmission in Latin America.
In 1974, the Joint Chiefs of Staff recommended the elimination of USSOUTHCOM to help trim the U.S. military presence abroad. Concerned that this change would complicate ongoing Panama Canal Treaty negotiations, President Gerald R. Ford refused to act on the proposal. Even so, the Secretary of Defense reduced the size of the command, limited its responsibilities, and downgraded the Commander’s authorized billet to Lieutenant General.
President Jimmy Carter (1977-1981), Rosalynn Carter, and Lieutenant General Dennis P. McAuliffe, Commander, U.S. Southern Command (1975-79), at Ft. Clayton, June 1978. Carter had signed the Panama Canal treaties in 1977 whereby the United States would transfer the canal and adjacent sites to Panama by December 1999—and provide for the defense of the waterway during the twenty-first century. As the senior U.S. military official in Panama, General McAuliffe played a major part in the U.S.-Panamanian negotiations. (Source: U.S. Army Signal Corps, NARA)
1975 - 1979
In 1976, USSOUTHCOM provided substantial humanitarian aid to Jamaica, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Ecuador, and Bolivia. At the same time, congressional restrictions limited U.S. military assistance to Latin America.
U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Panamanian Chief of Government Omar Torrijos signed the Panama Canal Treaties on September 7, 1977. Under the terms of the treaties, the United States pledged to relinquish control of the passageway by 2000.
60th Anniversary Main | 1963-1979 | 1980 – 1999 | 2000 - Present