JFK ASKS CONGRESS FOR $500 MIL TO FUND 'ALLIANCE FOR PROGRESS'
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On March 11, 1961, President John F. Kennedy asked Congress to appropriate $500 million to promote economic development, social progress and political freedom in Latin America.
The ten year program, Alliance for Progress*, was designed to assist the people of Latin America to..."build a hemisphere where all men can hope for a suitable standard of living and all can live out their lives in dignity and freedom."
President Kennedy's proposal was intended to fulfill the pledge made in his Inaugural Address..."to convert our good words into good deeds...to assist free men and free governments in casting off the chains of poverty."
The Kennedy administration hoped to reverse the steadily deteriorating relations of the 1950s between the United States and Latin America, and also to prevent the region from falling under communist control.
Fidel Castro, whose dictatorship in Cuba was not included in the Alliance, was unimpressed by the proposal. He said..."We'll see whether the conscience of Latin America can be bought for $500 million....or whether, as we contend, it cannot be bought at any price."
The Alliance was the largest U.S. foreign aid program ever proposed for the developing world. Although the Alliance would not achieve many of its goals, it was successful in supporting construction of housing, schools, airports, hospitals, clinics and water-purification projects in Latin America.
*The official documents creating the Alliance for Progress were signed in Uruguay on August 17, 1961.
"Alliance for Progress (Alianza para el Progreso)," www.jfklibrary.org/
"Looking Back: The Alliance for Progress and Its Legacy," by Lauren Monsen, www.iipdigital.usembassy.gov/
"The Alliance for Progress: Aims, Distortions, Obstacles," by Alberto Lleras Camargo, October 1963, Foreign Affairs, www.foreignaffairs.com/
C. Douglas Dillon, JFK & the
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On March 11, 1961, President John F. Kennedy asked Congress to appropriate $500 million to promote economic development, social progress and political freedom in Latin America.
The ten year program, Alliance for Progress*, was designed to assist the people of Latin America to..."build a hemisphere where all men can hope for a suitable standard of living and all can live out their lives in dignity and freedom."
President Kennedy's proposal was intended to fulfill the pledge made in his Inaugural Address..."to convert our good words into good deeds...to assist free men and free governments in casting off the chains of poverty."
The Kennedy administration hoped to reverse the steadily deteriorating relations of the 1950s between the United States and Latin America, and also to prevent the region from falling under communist control.
Fidel Castro, whose dictatorship in Cuba was not included in the Alliance, was unimpressed by the proposal. He said..."We'll see whether the conscience of Latin America can be bought for $500 million....or whether, as we contend, it cannot be bought at any price."
The Alliance was the largest U.S. foreign aid program ever proposed for the developing world. Although the Alliance would not achieve many of its goals, it was successful in supporting construction of housing, schools, airports, hospitals, clinics and water-purification projects in Latin America.
*The official documents creating the Alliance for Progress were signed in Uruguay on August 17, 1961.
SOURCES
"Alliance for Progress (Alianza para el Progreso)," www.jfklibrary.org/
"Looking Back: The Alliance for Progress and Its Legacy," by Lauren Monsen, www.iipdigital.usembassy.gov/
"The Alliance for Progress: Aims, Distortions, Obstacles," by Alberto Lleras Camargo, October 1963, Foreign Affairs, www.foreignaffairs.com/
C. Douglas Dillon, JFK & the
Delegation of the Inter-American
Economic & Social Conference
August 19, 1961
Photo by Robert L. Knudsen
JFK Library Image
