U.S. Southern Command

The U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) staff is organized into directorates and security cooperation organizations. SOUTHCOM comprises more than 1,200 military and civilian personnel representing the army, navy, air force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and other federal agencies. The armed services provide SOUTHCOM with the following component commands: U.S. Army South, U.S. Air Forces Southern, U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/ U.S. Fourth Fleet, and U.S. Marine Corps South. The SOUTHCOM enterprise also includes Command South, Joint Task Forces Guantanamo and Bravo, one Joint Interagency Task Force, and a network of Security Cooperation Offices. Combatant command authority is exercised through the commanders of SOUTHCOM’s different components. The SOUTHCOM commander reports to the president of the United States through the secretary of defense.

SOUTHCOM is one of nine unified combatant commands within the Department of Defense. It is responsible for U.S. military operations and security assistance programs in South America, Central America, and the Caribbean. It originated from the Caribbean Defense Command (CDC), a prototype military structure created during World War II. From 1941 to 1947, an army two-star general commanded the CDC from Quarry Heights, Canal Zone. The CDC primarily defended the Panama Canal and Caribbean Sea lanes but also developed counterespionage and antisubmarine missions to ensure defense of the region. Latin American governments were aided by the CDC through military training missions, admittance of Latin American [Page 1539]soldiers to U.S. service schools, and disbursing Lend-Lease materials to Latin American partners. The European and Pacific theaters were assigned the majority of U.S. military personnel during World War II, but there were 130,000 uniformed personnel spread out across Latin America and the Caribbean.

Following World War II, the Joint Chiefs of Staff reorganized military commands to promote interservice cooperation. The Joint Chiefs of Staff unified the armed forces under the administration of Harry S. Truman and broke military commands into geographic regions. The conduct of all military operations, regardless of force type, was placed under the leadership of that region’s lone commander. The CDC was deactivated in 1948 and replaced by the unified Caribbean Command, then commanded by a three-star general. The Caribbean Command still defended the Panama Canal, but now it is the American representative for security cooperation in Central and South America. It also oversaw the administration of military assistance programs in Mexico and the Caribbean.

Defense strategists removed the Caribbean basin from the Caribbean Command’s area of responsibility (AOR) as the Cold War became hotter. It was thought that U.S. Atlantic Command in Norfolk was best suited to defend the hemisphere from this area. This change in boundaries held into the 1960s and the Caribbean Command remained unengaged in the Caribbean. President John F. Kennedy’s administration redesignated the Caribbean Command as U.S. SOUTHCOM on June 6, 1963, to reflect a more accurate name. This transformation established a four-star billet for commander and shrank the command’s AOR to the noninsular landmass of Latin America. SOUTHCOM continued to protect the Panama Canal, made contingency plans for Cold War activities, and was the face of the U.S. military throughout the AOR.

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