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The U.S. Army is retooling to focus more on the Western Hemisphere - a makeover that's only partly related to the aggressive attitude that President Trump is showing towards Venezuela. Jay Price from member station WUNC explains.
JAY PRICE, BYLINE: It's hard to miss the bellicose tone
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: They took all of our oil from not that long ago. And we want it back. But they took it.
PRICE: That's the president speaking to reporters recently about Venezuela. The country hasn't taken U.S. oil, but Trump's recently released national security strategy was clear that the administration believes the United States should control the region anyway. Here's Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
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PETE HEGSETH: After years of neglect, the United States will restore U.S. military dominance in the Western Hemisphere. We will use it to protect our homeland and access to key terrain throughout the region.
PRICE: Hegseth said the Pentagon will work with like-minded neighbors, but is also ready to take decisive action to advance U.S. interests - an ominous note with the largest buildup of U.S. combat forces in Latin America in decades. Experts warned that using force the wrong way there could actually undermine U.S. security and commerce in the region. Bradley Bowman is a senior director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington think tank on foreign policy and national security.
BRADLEY BOWMAN: There's a reputation in many parts of Latin America about Americans with big sticks and a resentment and a historical legacy there. And if we come in in a way that is arrogant and unnecessarily aggressive and militaristic, then we risk feeding those unhelpful stereotypes.
PRICE: He says another risk of the new geographic emphasis is that if the Pentagon pulls forces away from Europe it could encourage more aggression there by Russia. Against the backdrop of all this, the Army held a ceremony at Fort Bragg this month, creating a new headquarters.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Per Army general order 2025-24 (ph), the Western Hemisphere Command is activated on...
PRICE: This new command - its largest - will oversee Army planning and operations for the Americas and the Caribbean, with an emphasis on the nation's borders. It's also about something military experts say generally makes sense - trying to streamline the Army and make it more efficient. It was created by merging three existing commands and is led by General Joseph Ryan, who spoke at the activation ceremony.
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JOSEPH RYAN: The Army is making an enormous investment in this transformation, combining three important, effective and historically capable commands and headquarters into one.
PRICE: Bowman, the national security expert, says combining the specific commands in this case makes sense, as long as it's done properly so the end result is it can perform its missions well. And as to the broader Army streamlining...
BOWMAN: So if we have a finite budget and an Army that is smaller, but headquarters that have grown and the number of general officers has grown, that's probably not ideal. So from an efficiency standpoint, I think that it makes sense to periodically scrutinize these details and try to make reforms.
PRICE: The new Western Hemisphere Command is being fashioned by merging U.S. Army South and U.S. Army North commands in Texas - run by a two-star and a three-star - with U.S. Army Forces Command at Bragg - led by a four-star general. And Bowman says that points to a potential upside beyond streamlining because a major part of U.S. Army South's role in Latin America has been closer to diplomacy than war fighting.
BOWMAN: They've focused on security cooperation - building the capabilities of partner militaries, not just their armies, but more broadly, based on the fact that a lot of the chiefs of defense are Army officers, and trying to help them solve nonmilitary issues, kind of be an initial point of contact.
PRICE: And now the U.S. general visiting his counterparts in Latin America and within the U.S. military will have clout - four stars' worth of it.
BOWMAN: When you show up in a meeting of four-stars and you're a two-star, you get less respect. By and large, what's on your shoulder really, really matters in terms of your access, your leverage and your influence.
PRICE: And the other nations in the hemisphere are paying close attention. The military attaches of four, including Chile and Brazil, were representing their countries at the Fort Bragg ceremony as the new command was created.
For NPR News, I'm Jay Price at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
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