American and Chilean authors seem to coincide in their perceptions of historical US-Chilean relations. Henry Clay Evans states that “few countries have had more occasion to regard the United States with hostility and to resent its policies” than Chile. In the same vein, Fredrick Pike has analyzed Chile's historic anti-Americanism, and William Sater has described the US-Chile relationship as a conflict between two imperialist projects. Similarly, Heraldo Muñoz and Carlos Portales (Chilean authors) state that US-Chilean relations “have been marked preferably by signs of divergence.” According to them, tensions and disputes between the two countries have been more common than agreements and cooperation over the years. As early as the 1820s, Chilean statesman Diego Portales warned his countrymen about the Monroe Doctrine and United States interests in the Western Hemisphere. According to Portales, the United States had not collaborated in the independence of Latin America and represented an imperialistic threat. In the words of Frederick Spike, Portales' anti-Yankee spirit became a tradition of Chilean foreign policy. A few years later, during the war between Chile and the Peru-Bolivia Confederation (1836-1839), the United States, despite its official neutrality, favored the confederation's position. According to Heraldo Muñoz, the Americans believed that a Chilean victory would provoke an imbalance of power in South America, extending the economic protectionism advocated by its authorities and affecting US trade in the region. Hostile relations between the United States and Chile continued with Chilean support. to Mexico in its conflict with the United States (1845-1848) as well as during the South American war against... half of the paper field, James Blaine was no longer Secretary of State and Trescott -representing the United States government- had to sign the Protocol of Viña del Mar (February 1882) accepting “the Chilean principle according to which peace depended on territorial transfer” from Peru. Chile had imposed its conditions and, as Heraldo Muñoz says, the United States “lost prestige in Chile because of its behavior in the Pacific War.” During the nineteenth century, U.S.-Chilean relations were hostile or at least distant. The United States perceived Chile as a critical and resistant voice regarding its policies in Latin America, and Chile viewed the United States as a threat to Latin American countries and its own national interests. This historical context is essential to understand the attitude of the United States and Chile during the Tacna-Arica controversy and especially during the attempted plebiscite in that region..