Soft “Nation-Building.” The Economic Weapon Developed by the US in Bolivia

Abstract

Declassified documents show that when President Harry Truman created his Point IV Program (1949), he launched a global operation of soft “nation- building" through technical and economic assistance. Point IV Technical Cooperation Agreements were the master keys to intervening in other nations. This work covers the period from January 1951 to April 12, 1952, showing in detail how Bolivia became a laboratory for US experiments in these kind of interventions. On March 14, 1951, a pro-US Bolivian government signed the Agreement. The US did everything to prevent the rise of a revolutionary movement, but despite its efforts people mobilized, defeated the military and deposed pro-US  government in the bloody revolution of  April 1952. The MNR revolution set the stage for the definitive test of the effectiveness of the soft “nation-building” programs against a true leftist and anti-imperialist government.