The Last Good Neighbor

Mexico in the Global Sixties

Eric Zolov

• Publisher: Duke University Press Books
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781478006206, 9781478005438
• eBook ISBN: 9781478007104
• Topic: Historia
• Subtopic: Historia del siglo XX

In The Last Good Neighbor Eric Zolov presents a revisionist account of Mexican domestic politics and international relations during the long 1960s, tracing how Mexico emerged from the shadow of FDR's Good Neighbor policy to become a geopolitical player in its own right during the Cold War. Zolov shows how President Adolfo López Mateos (1958–1964) leveraged Mexico's historical ties with the United States while harnessing the left's passionate calls for solidarity with developing nations in a bold attempt to alter the course of global politics. During this period, Mexico forged relationships with the Soviet Bloc, took positions at odds with US interests, and entered the scene of Third World internationalism. Drawing on archival research from Mexico, the United States, and Britain, Zolov gives a broad perspective on the multitudinous, transnational forces that shaped Mexican political culture in ways that challenge standard histories of the period.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• List of Abbreviations
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Mexico in the Global Sixties
• 1. Mexico’s “Restless” Left and the Resurrection of Lázaro Cárdenas
• 2. “Luniks and Sputniks in Chapultepec!”: The 1959 Soviet Exhibition and Peaceful Coexistence in Mexico
• 3. Mexico’s New Internationalism: Regional Leadership amid the Tumult of the Cuban Revolution
• 4. The “Spirit of Bandung” in Mexican National Politics
• 5. The “Preferred Revolution”: Confronting the Crisis of Mexican Neutralism
• 6. New Left Splits: The Implosion of the Movimiento de Liberación Nacional
• 7. Apex of Internationalism: Pursuing a Global Pivot
• 8. The Last Good Neighbor
• Epilogue: Into the Global 1970s
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index