It’s March 12th. This day in 1961, President John F Kennedy is hosting a couple hundred Latin American diplomats to lay out his vision for the “Alliance for Progress,” an ambitious plan to support democracy and economic development throughout the region.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss how this effort mirrored some of the elements of The Marshall Plan in Europe — and why US attempts to support Latin America generally fell short.

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

This Day In Esoteric Political History is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.

Your support helps foster independent, artist-owned podcasts and award-winning stories.

If you want to support the show directly, you can do so on our website: ThisDayPod.com

Get in touch if you have any ideas for future topics, or just want to say hello. Follow us on social @thisdaypod

Our team: Jacob Feldman, Researcher/Producer; Brittani Brown, Producer; Khawla Nakua, Transcripts; music by Teen Daze and Blue Dot Sessions; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia