Reflecting on an alliance.

• Author: Mesmer, Theodore
• Position: Alliance for Progress

The fiftieth anniversary of the Organization of American States offers an opportunity to reconsider the Alliance for Progress, which constituted a singularly active period of inter-American cooperation for development. The auhtors, who identify themselves as "friends of the Alliance," were, in their young careers at the Inter-American Development Bank and the Organization of American States, closely involved with the work of the Alliance. They have embarked on a reassessment of the Alliance based on the collective memory of those in Latin America and the Caribbean who were actively involved in that effort. This is an ambitious oral history project, gathering personal testimony from prominent government officials and technical experts in Latin America and the Caribbean, who were also involved in this effort.

The Alliance for Progress was a unique endeavor by the United States and Latin American and Caribbean countries to press forward with programs to accelerate social and economic development in the Hemisphere. The seeds of the Alliance lay in Latin American proposals, such as those aspirations defined in "Operation Panamerica" by ex-presidents Alberto Lleras Camargo of Colombia and Juscelino Kubitschek of Brazil, and in the decisions of the Eisenhower administration, reversing prior U.S. policy of benign neglect, to support the creation of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the negotiation of the International Coffee Agreement. It was given dramatic definition and impetus by President Kennedy in his Alliance for Progress speech in March 1961, was sustained and aggressively pursued by the Johnson administration after Kennedy's death in 1963, and even continued in a subdued form in the first Nixon administration.

The Alliance was a massive undertaking, without historic precedent in inter-American relations. From 1958 to 1970 it generated US$15-16 billion (in current U.S. dollars) of external assistance, largely from U.S. agencies, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the World Bank (IBRD) to the region (the equivalent of $80 billion in 1997 U.S. dollars). There were significant parallel supporting activities by U.S. universities, states, private foundations, churches, trade unions, and other non-governmental organizations. The OAS had a major role and responsibility for its overall management, notably through the ombudsman role of the CIAP (Inter-American Committee for the Alliance for Progress) and the annual CIES (Inter-American Economic and Social Council) meeting.

The Alliance absorbed a great deal of talent and energy in the Hemisphere and required dedication on the part of Latin American leaders and successive U.S. administrations. In the U.S. the Alliance enjoyed bipartisan congressional and budgetary support, at least...