the new military president adopted a policy of almost total alignment with the united states. "what is good for the united states, is good for brazil", asserted general juracy magalhães, the minister of foreign relations of the castelo branco administration. in accordance with this thought, castelo branco took a series of pro-american policies in both the foreign and domestic agendas: in 1964 he cut ties with cuba and china; in 1965 he sent troops to santo domingo in support for the united states occupation of the dominican republic; he opposed the creation, proposed by chile, of a latin american trade area that would exclude the u.s.; and defended the creation of an inter-american peace force, a pan-american military force that would be made up of military contingents of all countries in the americas. the force would be headed by the organization of american states, and its main function would be to intervene in any nation of the region where there was danger of a leftist revolution.