The Economy: Man with the Purse

(See Cover) A mild midwinter sun glinted on the sumptuous Uruguayan resort town of Punta del Este, 65 miles east of Montevideo. It was an odd setting for talk about poverty, but there last week, in the blue and white assembly hall of Punta del Este's Cantegril Country Club, the economic ministers of 21 hemisphere nations gath ered to launch a historically dramatic new program of massive aid for Latin America's underdeveloped nations — the Alliance for Progress (see THE HEMISPHERE).

The U.S. spokesman was Treasury Secretary Douglas Dillon. While Cuba's...