JFK Alliance for Progress first Anniversary speech - March 13, 1962

March 13, 1962 Mr. Vice President, Ambassadors from our sister Republics, members of the OAS, the nine wise men upon whom so much depends, Members of the Congress, whom I am very glad to see here today--on whom we depend so much in guiding and supporting and stimulating and directing our policies in this Hemisphere--Ambassador Moscoso, the Coordinator of the Alliance for Progress, gentlemen: One year ago, on a similar occasion, I proposed the Alliance for Progress. That was the conception, but the birth did not take place until some months later, at Punta del Este. That was a suggestion for a continent-wide cooperative effort to satisfy the basic needs of the American people for homes, work, land, health and schools, for political liberty and the dignity of the spirit.   Our mission, I said, was "to complete the revolution of the Americas--to build a Hemisphere where all men can hope for a suitable standard of living--and all can live out their lives in dignity and freedom." I then requested a meeting of the Inter-American Economic and Social Council to consider the proposal. And, seven months ago, at Punta del Este, that Council met and adopted the Charter which established the Alianza para el Progreso and declared, and I quote, "We, the American Republics, hereby proclaim our decision to unite in a common effort to bring our people accelerated economic progress and broader social justice within the framework of personal dignity and individual liberty." Together, the free nations of the Hemisphere pledged their resources and their energies to the Alliance for Progress. Together they pledged to accelerate economic and social development and to make the basic reforms that are necessary to ensure that all would participate in the fruits of this development. Together they pledged to modernize tax structures and land tenure-to wipe out illiteracy and ignorance-to promote health and provide decent housing-to solve the problems of commodity stabilization--to maintain sound fiscal and monetary policies--to secure the contributions of private enterprise to development-to speed the economic integration of Latin America. And together they established the basic institutional framework for this immense, decade-long development. This historic Charter marks a new step forward in the history of our Hemisphere. It is a reaffirmation of the continued vitality of our Inter-American system, a renewed proof of our ability to meet the challenges and perils of our time, as our predecessors met these challenges in their own days. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century we struggled to provide political independence in this Hemisphere. In the early twentieth century we worked to bring about a fundamental equality between all the nations of this Hemisphere one with another--to strengthen the machinery of regional cooperation within a framework of mutual respect, and under the leadership of Franklin Roosevelt and the Good Neighbor Policy that goal was achieved a generation ago. Today we seek to move beyond the accomplishments of the past--to establish the principle that all the people of this Hemisphere are entitled to a decent way of life-- and to transform that principle into the reality of economic advance and social justice on which political equality must be based. This is the most demanding goal of all. For we seek not merely the welfare and equality of nations one with another--but the welfare and the equality of the people within our nations. In so doing we are fulfilling the most ancient dreams of the founders of this Hemisphere, Washington, Jefferson, Bolivar, Marti, San Martin, and all the rest. And I believe that the first seven months of this Alliance have strengthened our confidence that this goal is within our grasp. Perhaps our most impressive accomplishment in working together has been the dramatic shift in the thinking and the attitudes which has occurred in our Hemisphere in these seven months. The Charter of