US Presidency
1961

Population growth is outpacing economic growth low living standards are further endangered and discontent the discontent of a people who know that abundance and the tools of progress are at last within their reach that discontent is growing. In the words of Jose Figueres, once dormant peoples are struggling upward toward the sun, toward a better life. If we are to meet a problem so staggering in its dimensions, our approach must itself be equally bold an approach consistent with the majestic concept of Operation Pan America. Therefore I have called on all people of the hemisphere to join in a new Alliance for Progress -Alianza para Progreso- a vast cooperative effort, unparalleled in magnitude and nobility of purpose, to satisfy the basic needs of the American people for homes, work and land, health and schools -techo, trabajo y tierra, salud y escuela, First, I propose that the American Republics begin on a vast new Ten Year Plan for the Americas, a plan to transform the 1960 's into a historic decade of democratic progress.