Progreso, Si!

Since World War II, Latin Americans right, left and center have criticized the U.S. for ignoring them. Seeing all the aid-to-Europe programs, hearing the cries for assistance to Asia and Africa, Latin America has felt taken for granted by the U.S.

Time and again they have called for a "Marshall Plan" for Latin America. Last week they got one. In two historic messages, one to Latin American diplomats at a White House reception and the other to Congress, President Kennedy launched what he called a "vast, new ten-year plan for the Americas" and promised massive aid, "just as we helped to provide the resources adequate to help rebuild the economies of Western Europe." As important as the cash was Kennedy's high degree of sensitivity to the trends, pressures and demands of Latin America today. Some Kennedy responses: P: Latin Americans insist that long-range economic development must be paralleled by quick social change. Kennedy proposed that his plan begin with a burst of projects--schools, housing, food--aimed at relieving human misery.

P: Latin Americans have long urged the U.S. to be as ready to deplore rightist dictatorships as leftist ones. Kennedy last week hoped impartially that the victims of Castro and Trujillo, "the people of Cuba and the Dominican Republic, will soon rejoin the society of free men." P: Latin Americans have as keen an ear as anyone else for a catchy slogan. Kennedy gave them one: "Progreso, Si! Tirania, No! [Progress, Yes! Tyranny, No!]." Time to Mobilize. Through both of Kennedy's messages ran the insistent theme that U.S. aid must be accompanied by self-help on the part of the Latin Americans. Only they, he warned, "can mobilize their resources and modify their social patterns so that all and not just a privileged few share in the fruits of growth." Kennedy did not specify in detail all the shortcomings that call for reform. But on average, personal income tax in Latin America runs only about 30% even on incomes over $1,000,000.* In addition, personal and corporate tax evasion costs Latin American governments an estimated $2 billion in revenues each year. Latin American governments spend about $1.4 billion each year on armed forces that often defend nothing more than pride.

The Starter. Emphasizing that distribution of the money would depend on "the readiness of each government to make the institutional improvements-which promise lasting social progress," Kennedy asked Congress to appropriate the $500 million it authorized at President Eisenhower's request last year, when the hemisphere foreign ministers met at Bogota to discuss social progress. The Inter-American Development Bank, in which the U.S. has 40% of the voting power, would get $394 million for soft loans, said Kennedy; $100 million would go to the U.S.'s International Cooperation Administration; the final $6,000,000 would be turned over to the Organization of American States.

The $500 million is only a beginning. Since September, Kennedy said, Latin American nations have submitted proposals for more than $1.2 billion worth of social development projects; "a preliminary selection from this list shows some $800 million worthy of early detailed examination." Over ten years, one top Administration official estimates, the U.S. would spend about $13.5 billion in Latin America, including private investment.

Clear & Deep. Not since Franklin Roosevelt cruised to Buenos Aires in 1936 to put his personal blessing on the Good Neighbor Policy had a U.S. presidential message evoked such unstinted approval in Latin America. Among the congratulatory cables that poured into the White House was a 550-word message from Colombia's President Alberto Lleras Camargo that began: "I have heard and read your speech with lively enthusiasm. It showed that you have a clear and deep concept of what the relationship should be between the nations of this hemisphere."

There were predictable exceptions. In Havana, Fidel Castro's mouthpiece Revolution called Kennedy's plan a mishmash, "a bit of Teddy Roosevelt, some of William Taft, some fundamentals of Herbert Hoover, some ideas of Harry Truman and just enough of Dwight Eisenhower." In Brazil, newspapers seemed to be catching some of President Janio Quadros' new independent airs in international affairs.

"What part will Brazil get? Nothing that will really help," decided Rio's Correio da Manha. For the most part, however, even the hemisphere's most enthusiastic Yankee baiters were impressed. In Brazil itself, famed Poet-Politician Augusto Frederico Schmidt, who has made a career of criticizing the U.S., launched into a semiautomatic denunciation of the Kennedy plan, then paused and remarked: "We now have some elements for optimism."

* Top U.S. rate for a married man with an income of $1,000,000: 86%.

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