Kennedy's Alliance for Progress

a flashcard set on JFK's foreign policy in Latin America (the Alliance for Progress) - emilie's

when did JFK become president?

20th January 1961

when was the attempted invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs?

17th-20th April 1961

in which year was the Alliance for Progress launched?

1961

when was the Charter of Punta del Este established?

17th August 1961

when was the Cuban Missile Crisis?

16th-28th October 1962

when was JFK assassinated?

22nd November 1963

what is the Spanish name for the Alliance for Progress?

Alianza para el Progreso

for how many years was the Alliance for Progress meant to run?

10 years

when did JFK announce the Alliance for Progress?

13th March 1961

in front of how many Latin American diplomats did JFK announce the Alliance for Progress

200

what is the name of the US political theorist and economist who popularised the notion of ‘nation-building’ as a method of preventing the spread of communism?

Walt W Rostow

what did Walt W Rostow claim in his book The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto?

“modern societies must be built, and we are prepared to help build them”

what did JFK call Latin America?

the “most dangerous area in the world”

when was Sputnik launched by the USSR?

1957

what was the name of the democratically-elected president of Venezuela at the time?

Romulo Betancourt

what was the name of the democratically-elected president of Argentina at the time?

Arturo Frondizi

what country is Punta del Este in?

Uruguay

when was the Punta del Este Conference?

August 1961

how many countries sent delegates to the Punta del Este Conference?

20

by what percentage did the Punta del Este Charter aim to increase per capita economic growth by?

2.5

by which year did the Punta del Este Charter aim to have eliminated adult illiteracy?

1970

how much money did the US promise to supply Latin America with under the Punta del Este Charter?

$20 billion

from which country were the ‘Wise Men’ Committee originally all going to be from?

the USA

who demanded that the members of the ‘Wise Men’ Committee should be from a variety of countries so that they would be familiar with “the true needs of our countries”?

Argentinian President Arturo Frondizi

how many people were on the ‘Wise Men’ Committee once it was approved?

9

when did JFK announce the formation of the Peace Corps?

2nd March 1961

what was the name of the act enacted by the US Congress which formally established the Peace Corps?

the Peace Corps Act

what was the aim of the Peace Corps?

to help people outside of the US understand American culture and vice versa

how much military aid did JFK give to Latin American countries a year?

$77 million

who argued that US military aid and training in Latin America was necessary to allow for moderate leaders to rule in Latin America?

Secretary of Defence Robert McNamara

what did the Secretary of Defence, Robert McNamara, say the internal stability caused by US military aid and training would allow for?

“economic and social development and the success of the Alliance for Progress”

who was the Secretary of State under JFK?

Dean Rusk

who was the Undersecretary of State under JFK?

Chester Bowles

who wrote to JFK protesting about the funding and counter-insurgency programs in Latin America in September 1961?

Undersecretary of State Chester Bowles

what did US Undersecretary of State Chester Bowles warn JFK of in his letter to him in September 1961?

“we are creating armed forces capable of seizing power'“

by funding military activities, what pledge did JFK violate that he had made in his Alliance for Progress speech?

to reduce US military expenditure in the region

how does Stephen G Rabe say the JFK administration justified its actions?

“the principal threat faced in Latin America is Communist subversion and indirect attack”

what did Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev declare that the USSR would back in January 1961?

“wars of national liberation”

against which democratically elected candidate was the Peruvian military coup in 1962?

Victor Raul Haya de la Torre

how much total economic assistance did the US supply to Latin America up to 1968?

$22.3 billion

how many countries reached the growth target of the Alliance for Progress?

9 (including Mexico and Brazil)

when was Romulo Betancourt elected in Venezuela?

1959

which Latin American country was the first that JFK visited in December 1961?

Venezuela

what was the overall growth rate for Latin America in the 1960s (the ‘decade of development’)?

1.5%

how many people were unemployed in Latin America by the end of the 1960s?

25 million

what did the US Ambassador to the Organisation of American States (OAS) William T Denzer say regarding the US funding in Latin America during the Alliance for Progress in March 1969?

“one sees that not that much money has been put into Latin America after all”

what was the US’ $20 billion of aid per person?

$10

how many times more money left Brazil for the US (through earnings and dividends) than was invested?

5

what was the population growth in Latin America in the 1960s?

3%

how many peasant families were living in Latin America at the time?

15 million

how many of the peasant families in Latin America actually benefitted from land reforms?

1 million

what did Latin American nationalists dismiss the Alliance for Progress as?

“yankee imperialism”

what do historians Peter Schwab and Jerome Lee Shneidman assert that the Alliance for Progress became?

“the Alliance for Progress went on to become on the greatest failures of the Kennedy administration”"

why does historian Harvey S Perloff claim the Alliance for Progress cannot be considered a failure?

“its vast and complex aims cannot be judged as failures as they were impossible to achieve in the short term”

what do historians Jerome Levinson and Juan de Onis argue about the Alliance for Progress?

“between the overambitious idealism of its development goals and the pointless obsessiveness of its concern for security, the United States really undermines the Alliance before it could get started”

what does historian Stephen G Rabe claim that security in the region was purchased at the expense of?

“the short-term security that anti-Communist elites could provide was purchased at the expense of long-term political and social democracy”

who does historian Stephen G Rabe claim JFK’s administration bolstered?

“the Administration demonstrably bolstered regimes and groups that were undemocratic, conservative, and frequently repressive”

what did Vice President Nixon praise Cuban autocrat Batista as?

“Cuba’s Abraham Lincoln”

what percentage of Latin American populations owned what percentage of Latin American land?

5-10% of Latin Americans owned 70-80% of the land

which countries did JFK’s administration temporarily break off relations with due to them being dictatorships?

Argentina, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Peru

what did historian Joseph Tulchin claim the Alliance for Progress was at best?

a “noble failure”

what did Theodore Sorenson claim the problem with the Alliance for Progress was?

“reality did not match the rhetoric”

what did historian Stephen Rabe conclude that the Alliance for Progress represented?

“a notable policy failure of the 1960s, superseded only by the U.S. debacle in Vietnam”

what does historian Michael Gambone refer to the 1960s as?

the “apogee of military power in Latin America”