University of Connecticut OpenCommons@UConn Honors Scholar Theses Honors Scholar Program Spring 5-1-2015 The uaG rantee of Freedom and Dignity? Colombian Land Reform, the Alliance for Progress, and the United States Thomas A. Costello University of Connecticut - Storrs,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://opencommons.uconn.edu/srhonors_theses Part of the Latin American History Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Costello, Thomas A., "The uaG rantee of Freedom and Dignity? Colombian Land Reform, the Alliance for Progress, and the United States" (2015). Honors Scholar Theses. 439. https://opencommons.uconn.edu/srhonors_theses/439 The Guarantee of Freedom and Dignity? Colombian Land Reform, the Alliance for Progress, and the United States Thomas Costello Honors Thesis, Department of History, University of Connecticut April 2015 Advisor: Professor Mark Healey Costello 2 I. Introduction “American policy cannot ignore the grave defects and dangers which exist in the basic structure of Latin American nations. What we can do is to help create the conditions in which effective reform can take place and to give encouragement and support to those leaders who have the will to institute reforms.” 1 In December 1960, a Foreign Policy Clearing House committee made what at first seems like a fairly innocuous recommendation for the Latin American policy of the incoming Kennedy administration. The paper advocated the establishment of an international body which could pressure Latin American nation into enacting national programs of land reform. A glance at the signatories to the recommendation, however, reveals a few odd bed-fellows. Along with leading development economists such as Albert Hirschman and Walt Rostow, those recommending land reform in this policy paper included United Fruit and other multinational firms.