AS I STATED on August 17, on the fourth anniversary of the Alliance for Progress, our vital alliance is perhaps the greatest adventure that this hemisphere has embarked upon since Columbus reached our shore five centuries ago. I also pledged my administration to helping all of our countries meet the goals of the alliance.
Recognizing that fulfillment of our goals will require the continuation of the joint effort beyond 1971, I wish to inform the Conference--and through you, your respective governments--that the United States will be prepared to extend mutual commitments beyond the time period foreseen in the charter of Punta del Este. In determining the scope of the United States effort, we will want to examine carefully with you at that time the requirements of the hemisphere, in the light of progress made through self-help measures and the contributions which by then some of your countries will be able to make to one another to further the common effort.
Note: The President's message was read to the Second Special Inter-American Conference at Rio de Janeiro on November 22 by Secretary of State Dean Rusk, who served as the U.S. representative to the Conference.
For the President's remarks on August 17 at a ceremony commemorating the fourth anniversary of the Alliance for Progress, see Item 429.
The text of the message was released at Austin, Tex.
Lyndon B. Johnson, Message to the Rio Conference of the Organization of American States. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/241013