An embattled idealism: Land reform, the Alliance for Progress, and the struggle for social justice in American foreign policy.

摘要

The 1960s was a time of great promise and tremendous disappointment in the United States. This was demonstrated in both foreign and domestic policy, from the struggles, triumphs, and continuing frustrations of the Civil Rights movement through the soaring hopes of the Great Society to the escalating tragedy of Vietnam. In this thesis, I suggest that we add the Alliance for Progress to that list as an example of an embattled and eventually defeated idealism in American foreign policy.;My central argument is that the idealist notion that American foreign policy in Latin America could and should be a constructive undertaking for all parties involved was a central element in the creation of the Alliance for Progress in the late 1950s and 1960s. Accompanied by the pragmatic concern to prevent the spread of the Cuban Revolution throughout the hemisphere, it was articulated as a call for a socially just foreign policy.;Although this vision was consistently pursued by a only a small number of individuals, it had a lasting influence and impact in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. Those people who believed in a socially just foreign policy also believed that a key element of such a policy was land reform, and therein lay the rub. To focus on this issue, at least in Latin America, was to pursue a dangerous and doomed policy, as threats to landed power were perceived as threats to good trade relations and anti-communist political alliances.;A reading of U.S. government documents, the public record, and archival material from the Kennedy, Johnson, and Agency for International Development Libraries demonstrates a vigorous internal discussion of the role of social justice in foreign policy, and reveals that the tensions between pragmatic and idealistic concerns ultimately doomed the Alliance for Progress as an attempt to redefine the American---Latin American relationship.