ABSTRACT
It was 1949 before the word ‘development’ was intellectually and programatically connected to the word ‘underdevelopment’ within their current contexts. According to Gilbert Rist, the self-proclaimed Swiss gatekeeper of the history of development, the idea of national development versus underdevelopment began as a ‘public relations gimmick . . . by a professional speech-writer’.1 Incumbent, Presidentelect Harry S. Truman wanted a fourth point for his inaugural address and development versus underdevelopment became that point. No one, in all likelihood, including Truman himself, really knew what was meant by develop ment and underdevelopment at the time, and no one could have anticipated what the impact of those simple words would have on the United States and the world. At the time, they simply sounded new and original; somehow charged with anticipation.
