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The man who gets most credit for the Alliance's fast start is Treasury Secretary C. Douglas Dillon. Deeply aware of charges that the U.S. has in the past neglected its neighbors, Dillon stood before a Los Angeles audience last week and said that if the accusation were true in the past, it most certainly is not now: "We are well launched on our Alliance, and already good progress has been made. Our friends in Latin America are aware that we have now given the highest priority to the development of our own hemisphere."
To make certain that everyone in Washington is tuned in to the new wave length, Dillon himself checks to be sure that loan applications do not get lost in the bureaucratic pigeonholes. Concerned over the slow progress of one loan recently, Dillon visited the agency to see the man in charge. "We're not ready to process it yet," said the official. "Fine," said Dillon. "I'll just sit down and wait for it." The "processing," that is, approval, came through in about 60 seconds.