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Nathan Kendrick
HIS 393
Dr. Dinius
October 31, 2013
Alliance for Progress
This speech was written by John F. Kennedy. He gave this speech as the president of the
United States. This occurred early in John F. Kennedys presidency on March 13, 1961. He
addressed the Latin American diplomats and the members of Congress during a special
reception at the White House. During this speech John F. Kennedy laid out his reasoning behind
wanting to create the Alliance for Progress. By doing this he felt that the entire Western
Hemisphere could grow faster than ever. He presented the foreign diplomats and members of
Congress with a 10-year plan, a plan to meet with the Inter-American Economic and Social
Council, and also to send five-hundred million dollars to Bogota to provide better education as
well as many other things. There were also several other programs and ideas that he had to
present throughout the address.
John F. Kennedy feels that as Americans, although they may be from different countries
they still share many similarities. He begins his speech by stating that they both stemmed from
revolts from colonial rule. Kennedy was able to connect the backgrounds across the continent
by pulling up historical events that occurred separately but had similar intents. In particular,
when he talks about the revolt from colonial rule he is relating the United States and the
American Revolution to the Mexican Revolution, as well as, many other revolutions of colonies
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revolting against Spain. After showing the similarities that the countries in the Americas share,
Kennedy begins talking about how the United States and the Latin American countries have not
done enough to reduce the poverty levels and increase the standard of living for the people in
the countries. John F. Kennedy felt that if they wanted to eliminate this road to poverty and
destruction they must work together with an audacious plan to stop it.
John F. Kennedy seems to be spot-on in his observation of the United States- Latin
American relations. The United States have not done a very good job in increasing the standard
of living for all countries. This has come about from the lack of collaboration between the
countries. Kennedy is quick to note though, that the Latin American countries themselves have
not done a great job of helping themselves. This may be true in some aspects if viewed with
American eyes, but many of these countries are still very young and beginning to build and
grow stronger at the time that this speech was given. Many Latin American countries were
growing greatly around this time. Kennedy does not seem they are growing fast enough. It is
understandable that John F. Kennedy would feel this way though because it is not fair to those
that are impoverished to wait for their country to grow. In the second half of his speech, he
states that all of the countries should come together in research and learning. This has come
about with many universities and laboratories collaborating across the continent to gain more
knowledge and understanding on several researched topics. All in all, Kennedys speech does
portray the historical records and relationships of the Americas well. This helped him to gain
much cooperation among the Latin American countries to get the things he wanted to do done.