Alliance for Progress

Program of assistance for Latin American countries launched by President John F. Kennedy in March 1961. The Alianza para el Progreso, as it is known in Spanish, consisted of a proposed 10-year, $500 million package that Latin American countries could use to implement major economic and social reforms. This included needed reforms in the areas of land distribution, education, food provision, human resources training (including military forces), and cultural exchange. Democratic governance and political stability were prerequisites for countries to be eligible to benefit from the initiative, which was commenced at a time when the United States' interest was to prevent communism from penetrating Latin America.

Since the late 1940s, Latin American governments had been requesting financial aid from the United States on terms similar to those of the Marshall Plan implemented in Western Europe after World War II. Leaders of the region believed that only external financial aid could help them overcome their economic and social difficulties. The United States had a different approach to the question, believing that private capital and enterprise, with little government intervention, should be at the center of economic and social prosperity, as it had been in its own case. As a result, the United States hesitated at that time to provide the assistance requested.

By the late 1950s, Latin Americans started to show frustration with the inability of their governments to address their most basic needs. The resource base available to governments in the region was limited to a few export products and highly susceptible to international trade fluctuations, leaving insufficient resources available for social programs. This situation, coupled with Cuba's increasingly hostile attitude toward the United States and the cheerful welcome that many Latin Americans were giving to Fidel Castro's revolutionary regime, sent the United States a signal that it might not take long before the Cuban model was imitated by others in the region.

Thus, in the midst of the Cold War, many leaders in Washington realized the potential risks of leaving Latin America unattended. This led the Kennedy administration to seriously consider proposals for more aid to Latin America as a means to ensure the necessary reforms that would guarantee the strengthening of democratic governments in the region.

In March 1961, President Kennedy launched the Alliance for Progress, which contained an implicit reaffirmation of the Monroe Doctrine (1823) and placed strong emphasis on democratic governance and U.S. military assistance, in part through the establishment of the Peace Corps. The initiative also called for economic and social reforms, and it incorporated a shared-responsibility approach in which Latin American governments would commit to mobilize domestic resources to accomplish the established goals.

The alliance's results in certain areas became apparent. It is estimated that between 1958 and 1970, the United States generated $15 billion of external financial assistance. However, the dynamics and politics of the Cold War era had a decisive impact on the alliance's effectiveness in contributing to the improvement of the quality of life in Latin America. Although the initiative failed to deliver more stable democratic governments, the United States, under President Lyndon B. Johnson, who had assumed the presidency in 1963 after Kennedy's assassination, found itself in the paradoxical position of acquiescing to authoritarian governments while stating the nation's commitment to democracy and to combating communism.

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