ABSTRACT
The Alliance for Progress was in a state of constant reevaluation in the early 1960s as U.S. policymakers and Latin Americans bemoaned the lack of dramatic achievements and came to understand its inherent problems. One early fundamental change was a recognition that the United States needed to abandon some of its ambitious and idealistic expectations and deal with Latin American problems in a more practical way. Rather than imagine that the Alliance for Progress would guarantee positive changes by creating growth, U.S. policymakers came to believe that it should be used to influence particular politicians to adjust their policies. These changes continued and accelerated in the Johnson administration. The grand rhetoric remained, but few policymakers continued to see the program as such. Rather than the start of a revolution, it became simply a means to guide political and economic change in Latin America.
