<P> The Monroe Doctrine means what it has meant since President Monroe and John Quincy Adams enunciated it, and that is that we would oppose a foreign power extending its power to the Western Hemisphere (sic), and that is why we oppose what is happening in Cuba today . That is why we have cut off our trade . That is why we worked in the OAS and in other ways to isolate the Communist menace in Cuba . That is why we will continue to give a good deal of our effort and attention to it . </P> <P> During the Cold War, the Monroe Doctrine was applied to Latin America by the framers of U.S. foreign policy . When the Cuban Revolution (1953--1959) established a Communist government with ties to the Soviet Union, it was argued that the Monroe Doctrine should be invoked to prevent the spread of Soviet - backed Communism in Latin America . Under this rationale, the U.S. provided intelligence and military aid to Latin and South American governments that claimed or appeared to be threatened by Communist subversion (as in the case of Operation Condor). </P> <P> In the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, President John F. Kennedy cited the Monroe Doctrine as grounds for America's confrontation with the Soviet Union over the installation of Soviet ballistic missiles on Cuban soil . </P> <P> The debate over this new interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine burgeoned in reaction to the Iran - Contra affair . It was revealed that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency had been covertly training "Contra" guerrilla soldiers in Honduras in an attempt to destabilize and overthrow the Sandinista revolutionary government of Nicaragua and its President, Daniel Ortega . CIA director Robert Gates vigorously defended the Contra operation in 1984, arguing that eschewing U.S. intervention in Nicaragua would be "totally to abandon the Monroe Doctrine". </P>

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