Alliance for Progress

The Alliance for Progress launched by the President of the United States John F. Kennedy in 1961 to strengthen the co-operation between the North America and the South America. This help was intended to contain the threat increasing Communiste on the American interests in the area which the United States felt since the takeover of Fidel Castro to Cuba.

She was formulated within the framework of the Doctrine Kennedy which specified the policy of the United States with regard to the continent during the Sixties. She did not have the anticipated results of economic development and of democratic progress and, gradually reduced, she was definitively removed by the president Nixon, in 1973.

Origin and objectives

Context

August 1st

Alliance

March 13rd, 1961, addressing to the diplomats of South America and to members of the Congress, president Kennedy, in the right wire of its rhetoric, proposed a plan at ten years for the Latin America: … we propose to carry out the revolution of Americas in the long term, to build a hemisphere where all the men can hope to reach a decent standard of living and where all can live with dignity and free. To carry out this objective, political freedom must accompany material progress… Once again let us transform the American continent into a vast crucible of efforts and revolutionary ideas, a homage to the capacity of creative energies of the men and women free, an example given to the world that freedom and progress can go of preserve. Awoke our American revolution once again so that it leads the fight of all - not with a force or a fear imperialist but with the leadership of courage and freedom and the hope in the future of humanity .

The tool of implementation of this political vision will be Alliance for the progress of which it had drawn contours in its speech of establishment on January 20th, 1961: I invited all people of this hemisphere to join a new Alliance for Progress - Alianza Progresso para -, a vast co-operative, unequalled effort in scale and goal, to satisfy the elementary needs for all the Americans Latin as regards housing, for work and ground, health and education - techo, trabajo will tierra there, salud there escuela. .

In this speech, Kennedy reaffirms the engagement of the United States in addition to take part in the defense of any nation whose independence would be in danger which aims at the threat of insurrection or communist intervention and promises to increase the programmes of food aid and economic support for the countries.

Detailed objectives

The program was initialed in August 1961 with the inter-American conference of the Organization of the American States (the OAS) joined together with Punta del Este in Uruguay.

The main objectives were:

  • an annual growth of 2,5% of the income per head,
  • establishment of democratic governments,
  • the elimination of the Illiteracy of the adults in 1970,
  • price stability, avoiding Inflation like Deflation,
  • a more equitable distribution of the incomes, a Land reform and economic and social planning.

The plan rested on three factual elements:

Firstly, the countries were to engage on investments of $80 billion over ten years. The United States promised to provide or guarantee $20 billion.

Secondly, the Latino-Américains delegates were necessary to provide a complete plan of development per country. These plans were to be subjected for approval at a committee of inter-American experts.

Thirdly, the taxation was to be changed to require “more of those which have more” and an introduced land reform. But, this total is not Net of the transfers of resources and development: the countries were to always ensure the service of their debt with respect to the USA and other developed countries. Lastly, the profits carried out went back to the USA, for an amount frequently higher than the new investments.

In March 1969, the ambassador of the United States to OAS, William T. Denzer, explained before the commission of the foreign affairs of the room of the representatives:

" When you observe flows Nets of capital and their effects economic, and after having paid homage to American to have increased their support with the countries of South America, one can realize that in fact, little money was injected in America latine."

The military slope

During the Kennedy Administration, between 1961 and 1963, the United States suspended the economic aid and/or broke their diplomatic relations with several countries which knew Dictature S, including the Argentine, the Dominican Republic, the Ecuador, the Guatemala, the Honduras, and the Peru. But, the suspensions were applied only temporarily, for periods going from three to six months.

Since 1964, under the presidency of Lyndon Johnson, the programme of discrimination against the dictatorial modes was stopped. In March 1964, the United States approved a military coup d'etat to the Brésil, and was held ready to intervene where necessary within the framework of the operation Brother Sam. In other countries, as with the El Salvador, that encouraged on the contrary profit-sharing substitution

A political failure

In Latin America during the Sixties, thirteen constitutional governments were replaced by military dictatorships. According to certain authors, like Peter Smith, it was the principal failure of Alliance: “the most obvious failure of Alliance was in the political arena. Instead of promoting the democracy, and to consolidate the civil laws reformists, the Sixties were the witness of a gust of coups d'etat in all the area…” " … Alliance was launched in 1961. A dozen years later, the area was dominated by men in uniform as ever since the Grande depression generated coups d'etat in all the area.

The Rockefeller report/ratio

Because of the general feeling that Alliance was a failure, just after being elected, the president Richard Nixon ordered on February 17th, 1969 an official investigation in order to determine the real situation of the South American continent. Nixon designated its political rival most powerful, the republican Gouverneur of the State of New York, Nelson Rockefeller to direct the study.

The execrable relations between the two politicians suggested that Nixon was not very interested by this investigation. That corresponded to a total fall of the interest expressed in the United States for this area with the beginning of the year seventy.

At the beginning of 1969, Rockefeller and its advisers went to four recoveries to Latin America. the majority of these visits created a real embarrassment. Rockefeller wrote in the foreword with his report/ratio that:

There is a general frustration in front of the incapacity to raise the standard of living more quickly. The United States, because of its identification with the failure of Alliance to achieve its goals, is blamed. The populations of the countries concerned used our visits to express their frustrations in front of the failures of their own governments to satisfy their own needs… demonstrations which begin with the expression from their disappointment and were recovered and exacerbated by anti-US subversive elements which sought to weaken the USA, and their own governments consequently.

The three proposed main reasons were: