ABSTRACT
United States policy toward Latin America has been discussed so often one might be led to believe a policy exists. This is more fancy than fact; while major US decisions often drastically affect affairs in Latin America, they do not flow from the overall design or consistent hemispheric posture to qualify as policy decisions. Confusion between foreign policy and foreign aid is also rampant. Justification and rationalization of foreign aid differs in each period. In the 1940s, aid was to create a world safe for capitalism. In the 1950s, it was a world safe for democracy, or at least safe from Soviet expansionism. The Nixon Doctrine of Action for Progress for Latin America follows closely the recommendations of the Rockefeller Commission of 1970. Basically, it argues that business and private investment funds are once more to become the exclusive instrument for promoting development.
