William H. Taft (1909-1913) 3

Although William Howard Taft assumed office planning to continue the policies of his predacessor, Taft took a very different course with regards to Latin America. He did send around 2,500 troops to Nicaragua in 1912 to prevent the overthrow of a pro-U.S. regime there. Taft was deeply concerned with the growing resentment and anti-U.S. sentiments in Latin America, and he called a special Pan-American Conference to address the issue. This conference was intent on finding ways to curtail U.S. commercial penetration, influence, and intervention. Unlike his predacessor, who joked about spanking those countries that stepped out of line, Taft sought a solution to this problem. He realized that growing U.S. resentment could result in severe instability throughout Latin America which would've opened doors for European subversion.