AMERICAN ECONOMIC AID PLANS ON THE EXAMPLE OF THE MARSHALL PLAN AND THE ALLIANCE FOR PROGRESS: SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES

Two American economic aid plans: European Recovery Program and Alliance for Progress are compared in the article. The author focuses on economic and political conditions which resulted in both initiatives. The text demonstrates the reasons for the formulation of the two aid proposals, and especially the premises that determined that the program for Europe was launched three years after the war, while the program for Latin America as late as in the 1960s. In the second part the author focuses on the objectives of both programs. To present the objectives preliminary assumptions indicated during the speeches of George C. Marshall of June 5, 1947, and of J. F. Kennedy of March 13, 1961 are quoted. Detailed objectives are be discussed based on the Foreign Assistance Act of 1948 and the provisions of the Charter of Punta del Este. The most important issues addressed in the third part are to compare programs’ effects, stress successes and failures of these two initiatives and attempt to identify their causes. In addition, the amount of economic assistance is presented, its scope and the types of benefits.

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