President João Goulart and the Breakdown of U.S.-Brazilian Relations

The 1950s and 1960s were a tumultuous time for relations between the United States and Brazil. Following the Cuban Revolution and the rise of Castro in 1959, the United States felt vulnerable and feared that the Cuban Revolution would spread communism to other countries in Latin America. Meanwhile, Brazil was experiencing an economic crisis as former President Juscelino Kubitschek had engaged in expensive policies intended to grow Brazil’s economy and spur industrial development. These policies left the country with rampant inflation and an untenable amount of debt, which Brazil had no hope of paying off. President John F. Kennedy’s Alliance for Progress offered a solution for the problems that both the United States and Brazil faced at the time. The United States considered Brazil to be the key to protecting Latin America from the spread of communism, as its giant economy, large reserve of natural resources, and natural borders with almost every country in South America would make Brazil a powerful anti-communist bastion. For Kubitschek’s successor, President Jânio Quadros, the Alliance for Progress offered the financial aid that Brazil desperately needed to keep its economy afloat and combat its growing debt. The Alliance for Progress seemed to conveniently solve both the United States and Brazil's problems.