Abstract
The Kennedy administration is known for its involvement in helping development as the creation of the USAID in 1961 indicates. However, this role endorsed by the United States is not exclusive to Kennedy and was already present during Truman's and Eisenhower's mandates. All of these policies had a common intellectual framework in the Modernization Theory which consisted in a set of ideas and strategies guiding foreign aid, trade, nationalism and counterinsurgency. However, there was also a fierce presumption where the economic and political advancements in western countries were normative; it was in world's interest to bring humanity to a comparable level of modernity versus backwardness. The years following WWII and Kennedy's arrival to presidency gave, through a particular context of early cold-war and decolonization, a strong appeal to such a Modernization Theory that would eventually backup the new ambitions of the Kennedy administration in Latin America. The Modernization theory certainly derived benefits from the globalization process and particularly from what we call the "modern globalization?. The post WWII context is crucial for understanding the attractiveness of the Modernization Theory. The fact that the U.S emerged as the new superpower which contributed to the cause of freeing Europe and the world from fascism, made America look like a valuable model that could be exported to different parts of the world.
