Americanneig hbo r. AlloverLat inA me rica,it
seemed,rhcUnitedStateswasproppingup
oppressiveandunpopulargovernments.
T h isWJSno tthewholetruth,ofcourse.American
dealingswithLatinAmericahadJmorepositiveand
humanitarianside.Dunngtheirearlieroccu pations
ofcountriessuchasCubaandNicaraguathe
Americanshadbuilthospitals,supplied to wns ..virh
p u rewaterandWipedomkille rdiseaseslike malari a
andyellowfever. Inth eearly1960sPr esident
Kenned ycontinuedthis tr adit ion.
In 1961 Ken ned y set up an orga n izat ioncalled the
A llian ceforProg ress.T heUnited Sta tesgave
millionsofdo llars toimp ro ve the livesofLatin
A m er ica'spoo r.T he mo neyWJSu sedto buildroads.
homes and schools,andtoimp ro vewater-supply
andsanitatio nsystems. Th e Allian cealso advan ced
llIo neytopeasantfarmers,sothat theycoul db uy
more land .Kennedyhopedth ataidingLat in Am eri ca
liketh iswouldenablegove rnmentstheretomake
enoughimproveme ntstostoppeople fromturning
tocommunism.
13m thegeneralsrunningmuchofLatinAmerica
continuedtorel ymoreongunsthanonreforms to
keeppower.Despi te the generosityofschemeslike
theAllianceforP rogress.m an ypeopleSdWlittl e
basicdifferencebetween theattitudeoftheU ni ted
Slatesto ward sLatinA m eri caan dtheatt itu deo f the
Soviet Unio ntowardseastern Europe.In onewayo r
another, bothsll pl'rpowersseemed d et ermined to
protl'crtheirOWI1int erestsb ycontro llingth eir
smallerneighbors.
31 A.\IUICA"sB ACKYANDKennedy'sPeaceCorps
Intheirri valr ywithth e Soviet Un io n,American
governments n ever fo rgot rhc lesson of the
Marshall Plan. They knew th at com m u nism is
often m o stattractivetoth epeopleofco u ntri es
where fo od is sho rt and life ishard. From the
19505 o n wa rd s,therefore,th ey spen tmillions o f
dollarsOilmodernizingfarms,cons t ruc tingpower
stations andbuildingroadsin countriesa sfarapdrt
asTurkey andColombia, Pakist an andC hile.T he
ideaofthis" fo reign did "WJStog ivepoorpeople
allover the world better lives, partlyoutofa
genuinedesireto helpth em butpartlyalsotow in
n ewfrien dsand suppo rtersfo r the United States.
Fo rei gn aiddidnotalwaystake theshapeoffo od,
machines or money. Somcrirncs human skills
werese nt, in theforrnofteachers andtechnical
experts. Soon afterJohn F. Kennedy became
Pres id en the start eda newschemeo f thiskin d
w he nhese t upan organizatio n calledth ePea ce
Corp s.The idea ofthe Peace Corps was to usc the
enthusiasm an d the skillso f youngAmericansto
help th e people of.. und erd cveloped..-ethar IS
poor - na tio ns tohel pthemselves.All membersof
th ePeaceCorp swerevolunteers.who ag reed to
workfortwoyedrsinthepoorco un tr iesofAsia.
Africa and LatinAmerica.
Some Americans disliked th e schem e. They
said that the ide aofse nd ing immature young
Americansto show th epeopleofdistant land s
h o w to live was both naive and arrogant. But
ot h ers th ou gh t th e scheme worthwh ileand ex-
citin g ."Thesekids rep resentso me thin g manyof
u s thoughthaddisappea redfromAmerica."said
a New York psychologist. " - thl' o ld fro nti er
spirit. :'Whoev er wasri ght,th e PeaceCor psachicvcdat
leastaile thing- fora wh ileit gavcahumanfaceto
the bare financialstatisti csofAmeri can forei gn
did.131