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Mexico finally sent a squadron of fighter aircraft to the Pacific late in the war. Mexico also clearly anticipated a German victory, which the country was expected to use to strengthen its position with the United States. And the Mexican government was ready to expel any American agents within its borders that were identified. It had expropriated American oil companies, and the United States was claiming that communist and National Socialist plots were prevalent throughout that country. Mexico was already at odds with the United States.
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It even established a propaganda radio station in Montevideo, Uruguay.
#Operation spring cleaning expedition full
German propaganda took full advantage of the opportunity and distributed literature and films in Spanish to encourage dissension throughout Latin America. In 1940, 90 percent of the region’s coffee, 83 percent of the sugar, 78 percent of the bauxite, 70 percent of the tungsten, as well as significant percentages of tin, copper, and crude oil were imported to the United States for both domestic and military consumption.Īlthough the United States was not yet at war, it had concerns about Latin America, for a dictator sympathetic to Adolf Hitler or Benito Mussolini might cause trouble for a United States that was trying to remain neutral. Originally, Latin America was important to the United States for the resources it provided to a nation soon to be at war. (Get a full look at the forgotten stories that shaped the twentieth century inside WWII History magazine.) Latin America in World War II Through the Brazilian Expeditionary Force, Brazil’s significant contribution of wealth, resources, and blood is, unfortunately, little remembered today. Scores of nations joined the major Allied powers to contribute, directly or indirectly, to the defeat of the common enemy. One of those nations was South America’s largest country, Brazil. The term “United Nations” was in large part derived from the large number of nations that joined in common cause between 19 to defeat the Axis powers of Germany, Japan, and Italy during World War II.