The United States Marine Corps maintains a great deal of archival material relating to Latin America, and the personnel of its Historical Branch can provide assistance and research facilities to scholars in the field. This material includes the records of Marine operations in Panama (1848-1914), Cuba (1905-1933), Nicaragua (1912-1932), the Dominican Republic (1912-1924), and Haiti (1914-1934). The records of the early 1930s have only recently been declassified and are now open to bona fide scholars without restriction. Much of this material is located in the Marine Corps Historical Archives and Library, Room 3127 Navy Annex, Arlington, Virginia. Those records not located in Room 3127 are stored nearby and can be made available there for study, usually the day after they are requested.
Not all this material is of a strictly military nature. Marine intelligence reports often shed light on the political, social, and economic conditions in the areas of operations. These reports sometimes contain valuable supporting documents, such as local newspaper clippings, captured insurgent correspondence, and statements taken from prisoners. Supply service reports indicate procurement practices and give some insight into the functioning of local economies. Operations orders and reports reveal the social and political considerations that influenced Marine tactics and strategy in the occupied republics. Material relating to the organization and operations of the Nicaraguan, Dominican, and Haitian constabularies under Marine officers may also be found in Arlington. It should be noted, however, that most of the records of the Guardia Nacional of Nicaragua for the 1927-1932 period are deposited in the Navy Section of the National Archives in Washington. (See John P. Harrison, Guide to Materials on Latin America in the National Archives, Washington, 1961.) Nevertheless, any study of the Nicaraguan Guardia Nacional during this period would be incomplete without reference to the correspondence between the commandant of the Marine Corps and the jefe director of the Guardia, which is preserved in Arlington.
Besides the official records of the Marine Corps, Historical Branch also maintains special subject files on prominent Marines active in Latin America and on such insurgent leaders as Augusto César Sandino and Charlemagne Peralte. These files contain copies of proclamations and citations, press clippings, photographs, and some manuscript material. In the eases of some Marines, extensive collections of personal papers are available. Among these collections can be found some candid views of Marine operations in Latin America.
A number of publications relating to Latin America are available at the Marine Corps Library in Arlington, including bibliographies and documented historical studies by Marine Corps historians. Among these studies are The United States Marines in Nicaragua (rev. ed., 1961) and Hold High the Torch (1960, now out of print), dealing with the Dominican Republic. Bibliographies include The United States Marines in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Nicaragua (1958) and An Annotated Bibliography of the United States Marines in Guerrilla-Type Actions (1962). The latter contains fifty-five references to published material on the Marines in Latin America—mostly articles in military journals. These publications, when not out of print, will be furnished to scholars upon request at no cost. Current emphasis on guerrilla warfare has resulted in many recent articles on the Marines in Latin America in such periodicals as the Marine Corps Gazette, Leatherneck, and United States Naval Institute Proceedings. These journals are indexed in the quarterly periodical index of the United States Air University (Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama). The Marine Corps Library has complete sets of these and other journals and also some rare books and pamphlets on Marine operations in Latin America. This small but important collection of published works on the Marines in Latin America is complemented by the Marine Corps Historical Documentation File, composed of annotated cards on material not held by the library.
Historical Branch has many reels of microfilmed documents which it will make available to scholars through inter-library loans. Most of the major record series in the Marine archives were reproduced on 16 mm microfilm shortly after World War II. Since then the original records have been reorganized and efficiently catalogued, but the arrangement of the material on microfilm reflects the earlier, disorganized state of these records. Lack of a usable guide to this microfilm and its small size make it difficult to use. On Nicaragua for the period 1927-1932 there are twenty-three such reels, all of which may be obtained through inter-library loans.
Inquiries about the Marine Corps Historical Archives and Library should be directed to Commandant of the Marine Corps (Code AO3D), Headquarters, U. S. Marine Corps, Washington, D. C. 20380.
Author notes
The author is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Florida.
