Last Good Neighbor

Eric Zolov is Professor of History at Stony Brook University. He is coeditor of Fragments of a Golden Age: The Politics of Culture in Mexico since 1940, also published by Duke University Press, and author of Refried Elvis: The Rise of Mexican Counterculture.

“The Last Good Neighbor is the best and deepest account of Mexican politics and foreign relations in those key years of transition from the late 50s to the early 60s. It is the result of Eric Zolov's long years of work in these areas, and that deep knowledge shows in his deft combination of political and cultural analysis.” - Patrick Iber, author of (Neither Peace nor Freedom: The Cultural Cold War in Latin America) “Beautifully written and engaging, The Last Good Neighbor offers a history of Mexico that is at once local and global, international and transnational. It is required reading for anyone interested in Mexican politics and foreign relations in the long sixties, within the Americas and beyond. In positioning Mexico at the heart of the global sixties, Eric Zolov adds significantly to our understanding of Latin America's relationship with the Third World during the Cold War.” - Tanya Harmer, author of (Allende's Chile and the Inter-American Cold War) "A fascinating book … that may interest scholars and diplomats to better interpret the internationalist role of foreign policy in the 1960s. Hopefully soon the book will find a translation for further dissemination." (CE Noticias Financieras) "The Last Good Neighbor is a masterful examination of Mexico's international, domestic, and cultural politics in the early 1960s. Scholars of Mexican history, inter-American relations, and the global Cold War have much to learn from Eric Zolov's comprehensive research and discerning analysis." - Renata Keller (Diplomatic History) "A landmark study, The Last Good Neighbor will push US and Latin Americanist scholars to reconsider some deeply-held views about US-Mexico and US-Latin America relations. . . . Non-Latin Americanists will appreciate the book’s compelling decentering of both the Cold War and 'the Global Sixties' away from their still accustomed North Atlantic core, and its critical and multi-layered engagement with the productive shortcomings of the Third World project and the global Left(s) attempts to navigate them." - Luis Herran Avila (The Sixties) "Zolov writes convincingly of Mexico's role as a regional geopolitical actor in the Americas. . . . This book is recommended reading for scholars of modern Mexican history, cultural studies, and international politics and will make for lively discussion in graduate seminars and honors courses." - Jesus A. Ramos-Kittrell (The Americas) "Packed with detail and deftly weaving together numerous historical narratives, this book is a substantial intellectual achievement. It is also highly readable, clearly argued and rich with interesting vignettes." - Sarah Osten (Middle Ground Journal)

• List of Abbreviations  ixAcknowledgments  xiiiIntroduction. Mexico in the Global Sixties  11. Mexico's "Restless" Left and the Resurrection of LÁzaro CÁrdenas  212. "Luniks and Sputniks in Chapultepec!": The 1959 Soviet Exhibition and Peaceful Coexistence in Mexico  553. Mexico's New Internationalism: Regional Leadership amid the Tumult of the Cuban Revolution  804. The "Spirit of Bandung" in Mexican National Politics  1085. The "Preferred Revolution": Confronting the Crisis of Mexican Neutralism  1406. New Left Splits: The Implosion of the Movimiento de LiberaciÓn Nacional  1627. Apex of Internationalism: Pursuing a Global Pivot  1978. The Last Good Neighbor  246Epilogue. Into the Global 1970s  285Notes  299Bibliography  373Index  389