Editing Modernization theory (section)

===United States foreign aid in the 1960s===
President [[John F. Kennedy]] (1961–1963) relied on economists [[W.W. Rostow]] on his staff and outsider [[John Kenneth Galbraith]] for ideas on how to promote rapid economic development in the "[[Third World]]", as it was called at the time. They promoted modernization models in order to reorient American aid to Asia, Africa and Latin America. In the Rostow version in his ''The Stages of Economic Growth'' (1960) progress must pass through five stages, and for underdeveloped world the critical stages were the second one, the transition, the third stage, the takeoff into self-sustaining growth. Rostow argued that American intervention could propel a country from the second to the third stage he expected that once it reached maturity, it would have a large energized middle class that would establish democracy and civil liberties and institutionalize human rights. The result was a comprehensive theory that could be used to challenge Marxist ideologies, and thereby repel communist advances.<ref>Diane B. Kunz, ''Butter and guns: America's Cold War economic diplomacy'' (1997) pp. 125–28.</ref> The model provided the foundation for the [[Alliance for Progress]] in Latin America, the [[Peace Corps]], [[Food for Peace]], and the [[United States Agency for International Development|Agency for International Development]] (AID). Kennedy proclaimed the 1960s the "Development Decade" and substantially increased the budget for foreign assistance. Modernization theory supplied the design, rationale, and justification for these programs. The goals proved much too ambitious, and the economists in a few years abandoned the European-based modernization model as inappropriate to the cultures they were trying to impact.<ref>Amanda Kay McVety, "JFK and Modernization Theory," in Andrew Hoberek, ed., ''The Cambridge Companion to John F. Kennedy'' (2015) pp. 103–17 [https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-companion-to-john-f-kennedy/5286B584766E413E4B7F4FE03A488CAE  online]</ref><ref>Michael E. Latham, ''Modernization as Ideology: American Social Science and "Nation Building" in the Kennedy Era'' (2000). {{ISBN|978-0-8078-4844-9}}</ref>

Kennedy and his top advisers were working from implicit ideological assumptions regarding modernization. They firmly believed modernity was not only good for the target populations, but was essential to avoid communism on the one hand or extreme control of traditional rural society by the very rich landowners on the other. They believed America had a duty, as the most modern country in the world, to promulgate this ideal to the poor nations of the Third World. They wanted programs that were altruistic, and benevolent—and also tough, energetic, and determined. It was benevolence with a foreign policy purpose. Michael Latham has identified how this ideology worked out in three major programs: the Alliance for Progress, the Peace Corps, and the [[Strategic Hamlet Program|strategic hamlet program]] in South Vietnam. However, Latham argues that the ideology was a non-coercive version of the modernization goals of the imperialistic of Britain, France and other European countries in the 19th century.<ref>Michael E. Latham, ''Modernization as Ideology. American Social Science and "Nation Building" in the Kennedy Era'' (2000). See also Nils Gilman, ''Mandarins of the Future: Modernization Theory in Cold War America''. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003.</ref>