"Rostow, Kennedy, and the Rhetoric of Foreign Aid is the first comprehensive, critical analysis of the influence of economic historian Walt Whitman Rostow's theory of the "stages of economic growth" on U.S. foreign aid policy during the 1950s and 1960s. Kimber Charles Pearce analyzes the rhetoric of Rostow's modernization theory, arguing that this rhetoric served as a template for development aid programs designed to contain Soviet expansionism throughout the cold war world.

Drawing upon Rostow's writings, public speeches, congressional testimony, personal interviews, and recently declassified documents, Pearce examines the economist's protracted campaign to convince policymakers to apply his theory of economic growth to the development aid initiatives of Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson.

The analysis culminates in a case study of Rostow's influence on the planning, advocacy, and implementation of President Kennedy's Alliance for Progress to develop Latin America."--BOOK JACKET.