military organizations, entered a period of dramatic change. When the Cold War ended, the command, like other U.S. Reagan administration, in turn, revitalized U.S. In the 1980s, internal conflicts in El Salvador, Nicaragua, and elsewhere rekindled U.S. For political reasons, the command narrowly survived, albeit with limited responsibilities and resources. Yet during the 1970s, after the Vietnam War, the Joint Chiefs of Staff recommended disestablishing the command to trim the U.S.

Southern Command personnel undertook civic-action projects with partner nation forces to accelerate regional development. foreign military assistance program in Central and South America. Southern Command mission involved defending the Panama Canal, contingency planning for Cold War activities, and the administration of the U.S. Southern Command on June 11, 1963.Дuring the 1960s, the U.S. Kennedy administration, therefore, changed the name to U.S. Caribbean Command - not engaged in the Caribbean - carried a name that incorrectly described its geographic interests, Central and South America. needed the Caribbean basin to conduct hemispheric antisubmarine operations.Д«y 1960, the U.S. In the event of a global war with the communist powers, they reasoned, U.S. Yet during the 1950s, defense officials also removed the Caribbean basin from the U.S. Beyond defending the Panama Canal, it assumed broad responsibilities for inter-American security cooperation in Central and South America. strategists adopted a national security plan that transformed the wartime headquarters into the U.S. Roughly half of those forces were under the direct control of the U.S. military planners assigned 135,000 uniformed personnel to duty stations in Latin America and the Caribbean. service schools to Latin American soldiers, sailors, and airmen.ДЄt the height of the war, U.S. Caribbean Defense Command also established military training missions in Latin America distributed military equipment to regional partners through the Lend Lease program and opened U.S. Below is a brief overview of our history, starting with the early Caribbean Defense Command days. authorities gave the command its current name, U.S. military missions in the Caribbean basin to operations focused, primarily, in Central and South America. Caribbean Defense Command.Дuring the 1950s, the commandвЂ™s responsibility shifted from U.S. Southern CommandвЂ™s history as a unified military headquarters began during World War II when U.S.

military units dispatched to Panama in the early 20th Century, U.S. forces train with Honduran troops in Honduras in 1988. Southern Command has worked to build regional and interagency partnerships to ensure the continued stability of the Western Hemisphere and the forward defense of the U.S.

Hemispheric defense zone