"TO COUNTER APPEAL OF REVOLUTIONARY POLITICS"

JFK WANTS $500 MILLION FOR LATIN AMERICAN PROGRAM

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On March 13, 1961, President John F. Kennedy sent a request to the United States Congress for $500 million to promote economic development, social progress and political freedom in Latin America.  The proposed ten year plan would be known as the Alliance for Progress*.

The President stated...

"We propose to complete the revolution of the Americas, to build a hemisphere where all...can hope for a suitable standard of living and can live...in dignity and freedom."

The program called upon countries of Latin America to invest $80 billion over ten years with the United States guaranteeing $20 billion.

Although considered successful in the short-term, the Alliance for Progress did not achieve long-term success after President Kennedy's death. 

*Alliance for Progress (1961-1973) was established by the United States and 22 Latin American nations.  According to the National Postal Museum, the AFP intended to "counter the appeal of revolutionary politics."

SOURCE

"Alliance for Progress," Celebrating Hispanic Heritage, Smithsonian National Postal Museum, www.postalmuseum.si.edu/ 

 

 

Alliance For Progress Stamp

United States Postal Service  

JFK PROPOSES LATIN AMERICAN ALLIANCE

ALLIANCE FOR PROGRESS

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) Fifty-four years ago today, 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, called the 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 made good on 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 in the 1950s between the United States and Latin America. 

Cuban president Fidel Castro,  whose communist dictatorship was not included in the Alliance, was, not surprisingly, unimpressed by the proposal. 

Castro 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."

According to the JFK Library, the Alliance for Progress was "the largest United States aid program created for the developing world."

The Library acknowledges that the program failed to achieve many of its goals, but it "supported the construction of housing, schools, airports, hospitals, clinics and water-purification projects as well as the distribution of free textbooks to students."

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/

C. Douglas Dillon, JFK & the

Delegation of the Inter-American

Economic & Social Conference

August 19, 1961

Photo by Robert L. Knudsen

JFK Library Image