ABSTRACT

In the immediate post-World War II years, the issue of economic interdependence between the United States (US) and Latin America seemed to require little additional debate. The interdependence was, after all, a reality, with the trade between the two reflecting a “logical” exchange: US consumer products for Latin American raw materials. In the years immediately following World War II the idea of economic aid to underdeveloped foreign nations began to slowly develop. In the beginning, “aid” was talked about primarily in terms of increased private US investment in these regions. In casting about for ideas as to the kind of economic assistance to offer Latin America, the most obvious basis for comparison was the much-heralded Marshall Plan. As a State Department memorandum of 1949 explained, the Latin Americans were certainly aware of the comparison, and that there had been “much publicized disappointment among the Latinos that have been unable to establish the equivalent of the Marshall Plan in that area.”