ABSTRACT
Although they differed sharply in style, personality, and the general tenor of their administration, João Goulart and Humberto Castelo Branco coincided in their perception of land reform as one of the principal issues of the time. In confronting land reform, they grappled with a political and economic problem that could no longer be postponed. Their respective programs, while implying distinct consequences for the political system, both recognized that the old Brazilian agricultural order was doomed.
