ABSTRACT
The presidential succession in the United States has almost always presented a problem for Latin America. A change of party frequently meant abrupt, unpredictable shifts in foreign policy—as from Taft to Wilson or Hoover to Franklin D. Roosevelt. A very different picture was drawn in a remarkable secret document prepared for Dean Acheson by George Kennan, the author of the historic "long memorandum" urging that US policy must be that of "a firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies." The implied endorsement actually masked significant divergences between the regional division and the policy planning adviser over the quality and direction of the administration's policy toward Latin America. The turning point that recognized Latin Americans as "adults" came between 1928 and 1936, with the abandonment of intervention and the adoption of the Good Neighbor policy. The consummation of modern Pan Americanism came at the Ninth International Conference of American States at Bogota, Colombia, March 30 to May 2, 1948.
