In a dramatic reversal of long-frozen policy, the U.S. last week agreed to help set up an international bank for Latin American economic development. At a special session of the Organization of American States, World Financier C. Douglas Dillon, now Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, announced: "The U.S. is prepared to consider the establishment of an inter-American regional-development institution." Latin America's joyous response was summed up by El Salvador Delegate Julio Heurtematte: "It is the realization of an old dream."
The dream of an inter-American development bank goes back to...