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¶ Development loans — which Latin America so far has invariably repaid and which Latin Americans overwhelmingly prefer to outright grants — could be stepped up. Washington's loans since the war total $2.5 billion, but currently the Export-Import Bank is cutting sharply and the new Inter-American Development Bank is still in the throes of organization.
However the U.S. might help, the manner of helping is equally as important as the aid itself. Latin Americans are too proud for alms and too cynical to be grateful for loans made with strings, e.g., as a "reward" for not going Communist, or under the condition that the money be spent in the U.S. They also suspect help given under pressure, such as the creation of the Inter-American Development Bank shortly after the Nixon stoning. The only honorable motive for aid is real concern over the size of the gap between the levels of living of the hemisphere's north and south.
Seeing the need for government machinery to express that concern, many Washington and Latin American officials frown at the low priority the U.S. gives Latin American affairs. The State Department's Latin America chief ranks with ten other Assistant Secretaries of State, below two Deputy Under Secretaries, two Under Secretaries and the Secretary of State himself. Two decades ago, the equivalent post ranked third. Some critics even think that a special branch of government, perhaps roughly similar to Britain's Commonwealth Relations office, is needed to administer the U.S.'s Latin American responsibilities with the necessary understanding.
In a pointed show of sympathy and approval for the new democratic aspirations and prospects of Latin America, Dwight Eisenhower this month will go there for a ten-day tour. Though it is a good-will tour, he will doubtless be pressed at least indirectly for aid. But he will also find that the primary responsibility for Latin American development, far from being left to the U.S., is courageously shouldered by the new leaders as their own. They see coldly that they must meet the expectations of their people for a better life; they know that television oratory feeds nobody; they believe in stable government under elected officials, with just and constant law.
* A name of French origin which Venezuelans pronounce Beh-tahn-coor.