The Johnson Administration During The Alliance For Progress

Foreign aid was an important form of U.S. foreign policy and a new phenomenon of international relations after the Second World War. Alliance for Progress was the U.S. economic assistant program in large scale toward Latin America in 1960s.Johnson administration's economic assistance to Latin America was affected by the elements of strategy, politic, and economy. In early 1960s,Cuba became a socialist country, which brought Communism influence in the west hemisphere. So U.S. strategic and security interests were confronted by Communism. In order to safeguard U.S. interests, President Kennedy introduced Alliance for Progress in 1961. When President Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963, many programs of Alliance for Progress were not put into effect. Lyndon B. Johnson succeeded the president and continued economic assistance to Latin America. But, the nature of Alliance for Progress has been taken many change, its political goal was still to contain Communism, prevent Cuba revolution from spreading and secure U.S. strategic and security interests in the west hemisphere, The economic goal of the Alliance was to pursue the interest for U.S. private corporations. The so-called aid enlarged oversea markets for U.S. commodities, created favorable climates for investment. What's more, Johnson administration always took advantage of economic aid to force Latin America to be subordinated to U.S. government, which fully inflected by the attitude of U.S. to Pure Belaunde administration."Nine Wise Men" and "Inter-American Committee of Alliance for Progress" were multinational organs to implement the Alliance for Progress. They were only symbolistic and had no power. Inter-American Development Bank, Social Progress Trust Fund and Agency for International Development were bilateral mechanisms to carry out the Alliance for Progress. They implemented the responsibility of U.S. assistance to Latin America and served U.S. interests.The Alliance for Progress included all aspects of society: agriculture, industry; tax, house, education, health and business. At the same time, U.S. supported a serial of social reforms of Latin America. To some extend, U.S. economic assistance contributed to economic and social development in Latin America. But it not improved the conditions of Latin America fundamentally. Foreign aid only used as an instrument and a tool to realize U.S. economic, political and strategic interests in the essence.