The Tan family did not realize until they arrived in 1962 that Brazil was in political crisis. At least, it surely looked that way to the United States. By far the largest country in Latin America and for a long time Washington’s most important ally in the region, Brazil appeared to be wobbling away from the US orbit. This didn’t just trouble the North Americans—it troubled much of Brazil’s elite, too. Unlike in Indonesia, Washington’s officials here did not have to adjust to a vastly different local culture and then plant the seeds of an anticommunist movement. In Brazil, they were able to
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