the home front to eliminate the attraction of Castro-communism for ordinary people who want action-as opposed to fine words-on problems they feel in their flesh and bones. Democracy must be given meaning. Negative postures-as drawing attention to the sovietization of Cuba, to the establishment there of a police state apparatus of terror, to the perversion of Castro's originally stated revolutionary objectives are not likely to counterbalance among the underprivileged even the slimmest evidence that the Cuban peasant has acquired a place in the sun; that, however little the guajiro may actually have gained materially, the gulf between him and the rich has been greatly narrowed by the elimination of the rich. These are things that have meaning for the hopeless poor.

Communism and its alter-ego, Castroism, thrive on urban slum conditions and on rural insecurity. The poor in the cities and the countryside, who are no longer passive politically, must see reasons for hope in life under free institutions. When they do, the statesmen of the Americas will be more free to plan for the long-term development of their countries without being distracted by fears of rebellion and revolt. When they do, Latin American statesmanship will flower and the American nations will enjoy unity based on self-confidence and pride of achievement. We cannot look for strong brothers-in-arms to the south of us against a common enemy as long as any of our fellow American nations are sapped by stagnation and social decay.

Frank discussion of these facts characterized my consultations with South American leaders. I believe the effects of our exchanges of ideas will become increasingly apparent as the months pass.

I am grateful for the uniformly profound courtesy and friendliness with which my mission was received everywhere. In no country, without exception, did I fail to see much to admire. I found no reason to falter in my faith that this generation of American statesmen, awake to the forces at large in the world, will act vigorously to safeguard the cultural and traditional values that have accumulated so richly in all our countries against the steam-roller leveling processes of international communism.

The change noted in the role of the military deserves special mention. Long mistrusted in many places as the tools of dictatorships and the perpetrators of coups d'état, the leaders of the armies of most of the nations I visited have acquired a deeper consciousness of the importance of democratic institutions. In several cases, the army is proving democracy's strongest bulwark and most constructive pro

moter.

Another phenomenon noted is the ferment apparent in intellectual and student circles. The communists have catered assiduously to their impatience to see wrongs redressed, and to their wish to employ their energies and imaginations in the interest of their fellow men. Communism sees in high-minded intellectuals and students in Latin America useful tools for launching the illiterate or semi-literate majorities in their countries on the road to communist revolution. The vigor and effectiveness of the penetration in intellectual and student circles have clearly grown over the past year.

Simultaneously, on the other hand, the long passive forces of sanity, the thinkers and creators and students who have concentrated on their work and studies while volatile minorities among them were active in politics, have begun to show a new awareness of the threat from extremists to all they hold dear. In several cases, the proponents of sane progress have militantly wrested control of intellectual and student organizations from the forces of destruction. This new trend is one of the most hopeful signs observed on my trip.

It behooves us in the United States to see in the intellectuals and the students of Latin America the leaven in their countries' lives. Most, I am convinced, are earnest, impatient idealists. They must be understood in relation to their own environments and traditions, not to ours. Their honest differences and prejudices must be respected. They have much of value to exchange with us. We should profit from their original thinking and creations. We should also make readily and massively available to them the cornerstones of our national philosophy-translations of the works of our giants. It was dismaying to discover Latin American bookstalls filled with cheap translations of the works of Marx, Lenin, Mao Tse-tung and the high priests of communism, and to find available in cheap editions few of the works of Jefferson, Lincoln, Emerson or Whitman. I believe in the essential good sense of even the radical zealots among the Latin American intellectuals and students, and urge that we make it easy for them, especially for the doubters and the more suspicious, to look us over for themselves, to weigh the achievements of our 185-year old democracy against its shortcomings, and to draw their own conclusions about where the merits lie in today's ideological struggle. I have no doubt about their verdict.

Among labor groups, a prime communist target, the international free trade unions are carrying on ceaseless efforts to expose the true nature of communism, to reveal the fate of organized labor wherever communists have gained ascendancy. Beginnings have been made in several countries to open new horizons for urban slum dwellers by self-help efforts to build new homes. The ultimate loyalties of rural folk will depend, as so much else, on the practical results obtained from the soul-searching that is now occupying the leaders of Latin America on such subjects as tax and land reform.

President Kennedy's proposal of an Alliance for Progress has created a profound impression throughout Latin America, the most favorable since Roosevelt's announcement of the "Good Neighbor" policy. Without exception, Government officials and others emphasized the critical importance of making the coming meeting in Uruguay of the Inter-American Economic and Social Council (IAECOSOC) a "success". Concepts as to the meaning of "success" appeared to vary widely. Although in some cases an inclination could be detected to hope that the IA-ECOSOC meeting would result in massive aid with no strings attached, I sensed awareness in the majority of those consulted that planning and self-help are essential factors in the Alliance for Progress concept. Deadly earnestness was patent in many instances, and I was gratified to observe a widespread tend

ency for Governments to think in terms, not of grants, but of hard loans for specific public investment projects designed to provide each country with solid structures capable of meeting properly the needs of all its people.

The growing world-consciousness, the alertness of Latin American statesmen to the interdependence of the modern world was reflected in the strong interest expressed by a number of them in reconciling their countries' problems with those of other areas. Considerable concern, for example, was expressed for the possible repercussions of the European Common Market on individual country economies. Intense interest was also shown in the possibilities of joint action to stabilize primary commodity markets and the prices of such key export products as coffee. The IA-ECOSOC conference in Uruguay will certainly be the scene of active discussion of commercial policy and commodity markets, as elements bearing directly on the goals of the Alliance for Progress. Satisfactory solutions for these questions would smooth the way for successful and speedy implementation of the Alliance.

Need for aid is large. Desire for accelerated growth is universal. Capacity for effective use of aid is being fast augmented by systematic programming of public investment. In most cases, I have found general concepts realistic. Much long-term planning is being done and the chances seem good for turning plans into sustained development efforts including changes in the direction of vital structural reforms. The chances will be greatly enhanced if the United States Congress will furnish the Executive with authority to make long-term commitments.

The majority of the Latin American nations will go to Uruguay in August conscious of the need to draw concrete, confidence-inspiring blueprints. They know that, were the IA-ECOSOC meeting to appear merely an exercise in pious rhetoric, it would be a severe blow to our cherished inter-American system and to the hope of making it immune to communist subversion and indirect aggression.

The consultations held in the course of my mission to South America demonstrated once more the vital importance of confidence in a collective approach to hemispheric problems. I believe it quite possible that, within the framework of the Organization of American States and hemispheric cooperation as it has been developed over generations, strong leadership will be forthcoming within the Americas to deal with the threats of outside aggression and subversion. The key to the appeal in the President's proposed Alliance for Progress is the word "Alliance". This fact has been recognized everywhere I have been. The nations of the Americas go to Uruguay prepared for teamwork. They will welcome leadership and vision and initiative from all sources. They will reject any efforts to impose leadership by one nation, ours or any other.

We must face the likelihood that concurrence by all the Latin American nations in all we propose is remote; that there will long be need for compromise and accommodation. However, I have sensed great sympathy and understanding for our country's objectives as expressed by our President, and a keen desire to work out our problems cooper

atively. It is entirely suitable that the problem of differences in viewpoints should exist and that we should face it patiently and with mutual understanding.

I look forward to increasing realization that, with strict correctness, probity and sincerity on all sides, recognition will crystallize that the United States and Latin America need each other; that they can work in close cooperation to make the inter-American system, the Organization of American States, an ever stronger fortress of the free world.

The Alliance for Progress will show the world how, when sovereign nations pool their resources, they can check disruptive forces quickly and effectively without faltering in their advance toward new horizons. Much remains to be done, much must be done by all concerned. Perhaps most essential, all must rationalize their thinking and separate domestic concerns from the larger concerns of the mutual welfare; all must grant those larger concerns the priority to which they are entitled. As the Alliance for Progress marches forward, as evidence becomes concrete that it is not a slogan but a road map to new achievements, it will, I believe, capture the spirit and imagination of all Americans.

DELEGATION OF AUTHORITY TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE TO ADMINISTER THE "ACT TO PROVIDE FOR ASSISTANCE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF LATIN AMERICA AND IN THE RECONSTRUCTION OF CHILE”: Executive Order No. 10955, July 31, 1961 97

"WE ASSEMBLE HERE AT PUNTA DEL ESTE TO CHART THE FUTURE COURSE OF OUR HEMISPHERE-UPON OUR DELIBERATIONS AND DECISIONS REST THE HOPES OF AMERICANS YET TO COME": Statement Made by the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury (Dillon) at the Special Meeting of the Inter-American Economic and Social Council, Punta del Este, August 7, 1961 98

97 26 Fed. Reg. 6967; 22 U.S.C. § 2381, note. The act referred to is Public Law 86-735, approved Sept. 8, 1960; text in American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1960, pp. 290–292.

Department of State press release No. 555; the Department of State Bulletin, Aug. 28, 1961, pp. 356–360.

145. DECLARATION TO THE PEOPLES OF AMERICA, Signed at Punta del Este by Representatives of the American Republics, August 17, 1961 99

2

Assembled in Punta del Este, inspired by the principles consecrated in the Charter of the Organization of American States,' in Operation Pan America and in the Act of Bogotá,3 the representatives of the American Republics hereby agree to establish an Alliance for Progress: a vast effort to bring a better life to all the peoples of the Continent.

This Alliance is established on the basic principle that free men working through the institution of representative democracy can best satisfy man's aspirations, including those for work, home and land, health and schools. No system can guarantee true progress unless it affirms the dignity of the individual which is the foundation of our civilization.

Therefore the countries signing this declaration in the exercise of their sovereignty have agreed to work toward the following goals during the coming years:

To improve and strengthen democratic institutions through application of the principle of self-determination by the people.

To accelerate economic and social development, thus rapidly bringing about a substantial and steady increase in the average income in order to narrow the gap between the standard of living in Latin American countries and that enjoyed in the industrialized countries. To carry out urban and rural housing programs to provide decent homes for all our people.

To encourage, in accordance with the characteristics of each country, programs of comprehensive agrarian reform, leading to the effective transformation, where required, of unjust structures and systems of land tenure and use; with a view to replacing latifundia and dwarf holdings by an equitable system of property so that, supplemented by timely and adequate credit, technical assistance and improved marketing arrangements, the land will become for the man who works it the basis of his economic stability, the foundation of his increasing welfare, and the guarantee of his freedom and dignity.

To assure fair wages and satisfactory working conditions to all our workers; to establish effective systems of labor-management relations and procedures for consultation and cooperation among government authorities, employers' associations, and trade unions in the interests of social and economic development.

"Alianza para el Progreso-The Record of Punta del Este (Washington, Pan American Union and Agency for International Development, 1962), pp. 1–2. This declaration was signed by Representatives of all of the American Republics except Cuba at the special meeting of the Inter-American Economic and Social Council held at Punta del Este, Uruguay, Aug. 5 to 17, 1961.

'Text in A Decade of American Foreign Policy: Basic Documents, 1941-1949, pp. 427-445.

2 See American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1958, pp. 380-381 and 402431, ibid., 1959, pp. 393-436, and ibid., 1960, pp. 281-300.

3 Text ibid., pp. 293–299.