"To our sister republics of the south, we have pledged a new alliance
for progress--alianza para progreso. Our goal is a free and prosperous
Latin America, realizing for all its states and all its citizens a degree
of economic and social progress that matches their historic contribu-
tions of culture, intellect and liberty." This pledge of President
Kennedy in his first State of the Union message is one of the few
encouraging developments in the history of inter-American relations
of the past decade. On its effective implementation will depend the
future of the inter-American regional organization.

The words of the President are encouraging if for no other reason
than that they reveal an awareness that all is not as it should be in
our relations with Latin America. And the recognition of a situation
is the first step in the adoption of remedial measures.

At the same time the pledge must be accepted for what it is--the
first step in what of necessity must be a long, sustained undertaking.
Remedial measures cannot be expected overnight. As the President
observed in his Inaugural Address, speaking in another context, they
will not be finished in the first one hundred days, nor in the first one
thousand days, nor perhaps in the life of the administration that began
in January of 1961. But if a start be made, the objectives will in time
be reached.

The attainment of these objectives will require the combined efforts
of all Western Hemisphere governments, as well as of the international
institutions they have set up. In the fulfillment of the pledge, inter-
American relations must be approached in their broadest aspect. The
measures adopted must encompass not only our relations with
the individual countries of Latin America, but our collective relations
with all of them as represented by the Organization of American
States.

It is to this last mentioned feature of inter-American relations
that the present study is directed. It seeks to assess the role of the
Organization of American States in the development of hemisphere
relations; the rise and decline of the inter-American regional organiza-
tion; and the extent to which the OAS may be capable of contributing

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