'Good works at a profit': Private development and United States - Brazil relations, 1945-1960

This dissertation is based on the idea that foreign relations go beyond the interactions of governments and are frequently shaped as much by corporations, international institutions, and the leaders of non-profit organizations as by diplomats. It examines a little known part of the story of U.S. relations with Latin America following World War II, which is the role of certain private individuals and groups in promoting economic development through the transfer of American techniques, technology, and financial resources--as contrasted with the role of the U.S. government in doing the same. Specifically, within the context of government relations, private enterprise, and foreign philanthropy, the study investigates the activities of Nelson A. Rockefeller in the development of Brazilian agriculture and Henry J. Kaiser in the automobile industry to determine why they were undertaken, how they related to U.S. foreign policy, whether or not they spread the benefits of development across the social spectrum, and in what ways they reflected Americans' view of themselves, their culture, and their nation's role in the world between 1945 and 1960. Brazil was chosen for this study because of its economic, political, and geographical prominence in Latin America, and because of its close alliance with the U.S. in the Twentieth Century.;The sources for this dissertation are government and private archives in both the United States and Brazil. What emerges is that Rockefeller and Kaiser shared a belief in the postwar economic interdependence of nations which led them to consider Latin American development as of direct benefit to the United States. Importantly, their investments in Brazil also led to Rockefeller's political advancement and to Kaiser's economic benefit. Yet Brazil benefitted as well, largely as a result of the strong cooperation of local businessmen, agronomists, and politicians, who sought to adapt North American technologies and resources to Brazil's needs. To some extent, these private efforts compensated for the frequently indifferent attitude of the U.S. government towards the country which was, according to State Department records, "the keystone of our Latin American policy.".