OK, now I’m totally disappointed with Grandin’s book. I just discovered from it that the US somehow forced the Soviets to invade Afghanistan. You’ll ask what any of this has to do with Latin America. Your guess will be as good as mine. Now when my students tell me that Latin America is a country in Afghanistan, I will know where they are getting it.
I remember back in 1987, while still living in the USSR, I once sneezed. I was young then, so I blamed the sneeze on pollen. Now I’m beginning to suspect that it was caused by the US policy in Latin America. Because, apparently, every sneeze on the planet was engineered by the CIA.
Clarissa's Blog 
What I remember from the era was that there was covert CIA activity that destabilized Afghanistan in the late 70s, according to some with the intention of drawing USSR in and getting them mired in a draining war.
I remember Zbigniew Brzezinski (Carter’s national security advisor) saying we had “given the Soviets their own Viet Nam.”
LikeLike
Yes, Grandin quotes Zbigniew Brzezinski on this. I suggest everything this weird fellow said be taken with a grain of salt because his vision is obsessively US-centric and very biased.
LikeLike
Even if for the sake of the argument we assume what Brzezinski said is 100% true, this would only mean that the USA set up a trap. The Russians had to make the decision of stepping into it. So no, “the Americans made me do it” still doesn’t apply.
LikeLike
I’d say that is all beside the point. I haven’t read this book of Grandin’s but I doubt the thesis really is this childish.
LikeLike