right|thumb|U.S. President [[John F. Kennedy in December 1961 promoting the Alliance for Progress with Venezuelan President Rómulo Betancourt, who had invited Kennedy to this land redistribution ceremony in a Venezuelan village. Kennedy's wife, Jacqueline, addressed the audience in Spanish. Video of this ceremony can be seen here.]]

The Alliance for Progress () was an initiative launched by U.S. President John F. Kennedy on March 13, 1961, that aimed to establish economic cooperation between the U.S. and Latin America. Governor Luis Muñoz Marín of Puerto Rico was a close advisor on Latin American affairs to Kennedy, and one of his top administrators, Teodoro Moscoso, the architect of "Operation Bootstrap", was named the coordinator of the program by President Kennedy.

The Alliance for Progress was a 10-year plan proposed by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 to foster economic cooperation between North and South America, particularly aimed at countering the perceived communist threat from Cuba. The program was signed at an inter-American conference in Uruguay in August 1961. The main objectives of the Alliance for Progress included:

  • Economic Development: The plan aimed to achieve an annual increase of 2.5 percent in per capita income in Latin American countries, with the goal of promoting economic growth and reducing poverty.
  • Democratic Governments: The charter called for the establishment and support of democratic governments in Latin America, promoting political stability and the protection of human rights.
  • Education and Literacy: One of the goals was to eliminate adult illiteracy in Latin America by 1970, recognizing education as a crucial factor for social and economic development.
  • Price Stability: The Alliance aimed to maintain price stability in the region, avoiding high inflation or deflation, which could hinder economic progress.
  • Income Distribution and Land Reform: The program sought to promote more equitable income distribution and land reform to address social and economic inequalities.
  • Economic and Social Planning: Latin American countries were expected to create comprehensive plans for national development, which would be reviewed and approved by an inter-American board of experts.
  • Financial Commitment: The participating Latin American countries pledged a capital investment of $80 billion over 10 years, while the United States would provide or guarantee $20 billion in aid.
  • Tax Reform: The tax codes in Latin American countries were to be revised to demand a greater contribution from the wealthier individuals and corporations, aiming for a fairer distribution of the tax burden.

The Alliance for Progress aimed to strengthen ties between the United States and Latin America, promoting economic growth, political stability, and social progress. However, the success of the program was limited due to various challenges, including political instability, corruption, and insufficient implementation of the proposed reforms.

Origin and targets

The United States government began to strengthen diplomatic relations with Latin America in the late 1950s during the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower.

In March 1961, the newly inaugurated President Kennedy proposed a ten-year plan for Latin America:

thumb|. Kennedy press conference on 2 August 1961, talking about the upcoming conference in Punta del Este. The U.S. delegation was led by Secretary of the Treasury [[C. Douglas Dillon.]]

The program was signed at an inter-American conference at Punta del Este, Uruguay, in August 1961. The charter called for reaching these targets:

  • an annual increase of 2.5% in per capita income,
  • the establishment of democratic governments,
  • the elimination of adult illiteracy by 1970
  • price stability, to avoid inflation or deflation
  • more equitable income distribution, land reform, and
  • economic and social planning.

First, the plan called for Latin American countries to pledge a capital investment of $80 billion over 10 years. The United States agreed to supply or guarantee $20 billion within one decade. However, the amount of aid did not equal the net transfer of resources and development as Latin American countries still had to pay off their debt to the US and other first world countries. Additionally, profits from the investments usually returned to the US, with profits frequently exceeding new investment.

Economic aid to Latin America dropped sharply in the late 1960s, especially when Richard Nixon entered the White House.

Reception

Ivan Illich advanced a "potent and highly influential critique" of the Alliance, seeing it as "bankrolled and organized by wealthy nations, foundations, and religious groups."

The journalist AJ Langguth noted that many Brazilian nationalists scorned the Alliance as Brazilian foreign aid to America due to the belief that American corporations were withdrawing more money from the country than they were investing. Though Brazil did indeed run balance of payments deficits with the United States during the years of the Alliance, the size of these deficits was well exceeded by the grants and credits provided by the US to Brazil, even before factoring development loans and military aid. Brazil also enjoyed large overall balance of payments surpluses during the Alliance years.

Military version

During the Kennedy administration, between 1961 and 1963, the U.S. suspended economic and/or broke off diplomatic relations with several governments that it did not favor, including Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Peru. The suspensions lasted for periods of three weeks to six months.

Rockefeller study

Because the perception was that the Alliance for Progress was a failure, shortly after taking office, on February 17, 1969, President Richard Nixon commissioned a study to assess the state of Latin America. Nixon appointed his most powerful political rival, New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller to direct the study. The poor relationship between the two politicians suggested that Nixon would not be that interested in the results of the study. There was a lack of interest for the region in the late 1960s to early 1970s.

In early 1969, Rockefeller and his advisors took four trips to Latin America. Most of the trips turned out to be an embarrassment. Rockefeller wrote in his report preface that,

:There is general frustration over the failure to achieve a more rapid improvement in standards of living. The United States, because of its identification with the failure of the Alliance for Progress to live up to expectations, is blamed. People in the countries concerned also used our visit as an opportunity to demonstrate their frustrations with the failure of their own governments to meet their needs...demonstrations that began over grievances were taken over and exacerbated by anti-US and subversive elements which sought to weaken the United States, and their own governments in the process.

Adult illiteracy was reduced but not wiped out. In some countries, the number of people attending universities doubled or even tripled. Access to secondary education also showed increases. One out of every four school-age children were provided with an extra food ration. Many people were provided with new schools, textbooks, or housing.

The Alliance of Progress also had ties to the rise of militarization in Latin America. During the 1960s, thirteen constitutional governments in Latin America were replaced by military dictatorships. According to some authors, this was a failure of the Alliance for Progress. Indeed, U.S. military aid to some countries increased substantially as a result of the Alliance. A portion of this military aid was allocated to the School of the Americas in the Panama Canal Zone, where several future military dictators in Latin America would attend.

Results

The Alliance for Progress achieved a short-lived public relations success. It also had real but limited economic advances.

The program failed for three reasons:

  • Latin American nations were unwilling to implement needed reforms, particularly in land reform.
  • Kennedy's presidential successors, Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon, were less supportive of the program.
  • The amount of money was not enough for the entire region: $20 billion averaged out to only $10 per Latin American.