Good Neighbor policy

The efforts of US administrations between the two world wars to improve relations with Latin American and Caribbean states. The phrase was first used by President F D Roosevelt in his inaugural speech March 1933 to describe the foreign policy of his New Deal.

Following a prolonged period of economic and military intervention, Roosevelt withdrew US forces from Nicaragua and Haiti, renouncing any right to intervene, and concluding a treaty (1934) giving Cuba full independence. The good will engendered was to be significant in maintaining the unity of the Western hemisphere during World War II.