NEW YORK—Franklin D. Roosevelt, during his 12-year presidency, prided himself on the United States being a good neighbor to fellow nations in the Americas.
He met with Latin and Caribbean leaders, invited them to dinner and gave rides around Washington, D.C., like a good neighbor should. He traded with them and mediated their conflicts, again like a good neighbor should. Where Roosevelt failed as a good neighbor, however, was in allowing his political pet Rafael Trujillo, 30-year dictator of the Dominican Republic and fan of Adolf Hitler, to kill and maim another neighbor.
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