Dollar Diplomacy Modern Style: Chapters in the Failure of the Alliance for Progress

In his book on the Alliance for Progress, Hanson has few kind words for either North or South Americans. Labeling the Affiance “Dollar Diplomacy Modern Style,” he charges that the United States constantly interfered in the internal affairs of the Latin American countries. President Kennedy, who had no knowledge of the people with whom he was dealing, failed in his attempt to buy their friendship, and although money poured into Latin America, North American business interests emerged as the sole beneficiaries. Nor, in the author’s opinion, do the Latin Americans deserve any praise. He excoriates them for indulging in self-pity and for refusing to do anything to help themselves. Furthermore, they did not envision the Alliance as a cooperative undertaking; rather, they would have preferred that the United States “throw the money over the transom and go away.”