ABSTRACT
In June 1947, when Secretary of State George Marshall proposed a plan to help Europe recover from World War II, the situation there was grim. Millions faced starvation, and Communists seemed on the verge of taking power in a number of friendly, democratic nations. The Marshall Plan reflex rarely leads to a program, the new initiative tends to follow the pattern of the original. In 1948, at the Conference of Bogota, which established the Organization of American States (OAS), Latin American leaders complimented Marshall for his plan but advised him that it would be better applied to Latin America than to Europe. The Carter administration accepted Latin America's desire for global trade preferences and the North-South dialogue, and it expanded US contributions to the international development banks. In the 1970s, the United States quickened the pace of multilateralizing US foreign aid policy. The World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank became the principal vehicles for promoting development in Latin America.
