Friend or Foe? US Foreign Aid and United States-Brazilian Relations in the Implementation of the Alliance for Progress

The Cuban Revolution (1959) represented a turning point in the way the United States approached Latin America. Trying to regain its traditional influence in a rapidly changing environment, US policymakers embarked upon a path of emboldened disbursement of foreign aid to the region, culminating in the hastily launched Alliance for Progress of early 1961. Latin America’s largest country, Brazil occupied a leading position in the devised program but contrary to most expectations, the policies pursued in the country deepened political antagonism rather than fostered a positive image of the U.S.

This paper seeks to uncover some of the ways in which the implementation of the Alliance for Progress was debated in Brazil in order to assess how the country’s most influential neighbor was conceived of and represented by key sectors of Brazilian society in the transformative period of the 1960s. The focus of the analysis derives from the fact that despite its promises of constructive support for the developmental ideals of the democratically elected government in place in Brazil early in the decade, the United States, in both its foreign policy to the region (e.g. the Alliance for Progress) as well as in its private dealings with the country, increasingly played a polarizing and politically destabilizing role that culminated in the demise of the democratic regime and the deepening of authoritarian rule in South America’s most important economy.