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The situation has some U.S. Congress men on the warpath. Louisiana Representative Otto Passman, chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Aid. last month denounced a White House request for $3 billion to finance the Alliance for the next four years as "asinine." U.S. Alliance Director Teodoro Moscoso. who bossed Puerto Rico's successful self-help program, admits: "You can hardly expect U.S. taxpayers, already heavily burdened, to help underwrite development programs in countries where a few privileged people are virtually free from taxation." In recent months, U.S. lawmakers have journeyed to Latin America to see for themselves. Arkansas' Senator John McClellan found "an attitude of waiting for Uncle Sam to take the lead."
U.S. businessmen complain that the Kennedy Administration is ignoring the essential role of private enterprise in Alliance development, even though it talks of both "public and private" capital. New U.S. private investment in Latin America, apparently because of fears of more Castros. last year fell to a rock-bottom low of $90 million, down from $540 million in 1959.
Prodders In. Three weeks ago. President Kennedy called in his Latin America advisers, asked how the Alianza was faring, and bristled when he was told that it was barely airborne. Kennedy ordered his No. 1 Latin America troubleshooter, Richard Goodwin, 30. who wrote last year's presidential Alianza speech, but otherwise had no previous familiarity with Latin America, to be trail boss for the New Frontiersmen in speeding the program. Last week the President fired Goodwin's nominal boss. Robert Woodward, a genial career diplomat who was just too slow for Kennedy. In his place as Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, the President named a career bureaucrat. Edwin M. Martin, 53. who has a grounding in economics.