A 21-gun salute one day last week heralded the arrival of a green leather-bound volume at the opening of Brazil's Congress. The book contained President Juscelino Kubitschek's 294-page state of the nation message. Its tone, as a House of Deputies secretary droned it out, in summary, was proud and hopeful.
As Kubitschek had already made clear in his New Year's message to the people, the first year of his five-year development plan had to be spent mainly in the unspectacular business of laying the groundwork. Nevertheless, 1956 did produce unexpected progress. Almost as though he could hardly believe Brazil's good...
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