Operation Pan American

In a major radio and TV speech, Brazil's President Juscelino Kubitschek last week called for a "meeting on the highest political level"--a hemisphere summit talk--to solve Latin America's "disease of underdevelopment." He dubbed the task of developing Latin America "Operation Pan American," and in effect appealed for a Marshall Plan to do the job.

Speaking from a paneled room of Rio's Catete Palace, with 20 hemisphere ambassadors present, Kubitschek praised the U.S. for its prompt aid in reconstructing war-ruined European economies. But, he said sadly, Washington did not show "equal interest in the serious problem of development in countries still with rudimentary economies." Thus, according to Kubitschek, Latin America found itself "in a more precarious and afflicted position than the nations devastated by war, and has become the most vulnerable point within the Western coalition." The President warned: "The Western cause will unavoidably suffer if in its own hemisphere no help comes. It is difficult to defend the democratic ideal with misery weighing on so many lives."

Until now the U.S. has been lukewarm to the idea of Pan American summit talks. Washington would prefer a meeting of foreign ministers for hard conference work, topping that meeting off with a symbolic gathering of Presidents afterward. The U.S. view is widely understood; Brazilian Foreign Affairs Minister Jose Carlos de Macedo Soares resigned last week in protest over Kubitschek's call for presidential talks.

U.S. enthusiasm for a Marshall Plan for Latin America may well be restrained, but the Latinos are expected to endorse it heartily. Quipped one Latin American ambassador as he left Catete Palace after the speech: "Viva underdevelopment!"

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