On the Mechanisms of Imperialism: The Case of Brazil

Abstract

In an article which appeared in The Nation of April 27, 1964, entitled "Brazil in Perspective," I examined the official Brazilian and U.S. views of economic relations between the two countries as presented by Roberto de Oliveira Campos who was then Brazilian Ambassador in Washington and is now the minister in charge of economic policy in the military dictatorship which took power in April, and by Lincoln Gordon, then and now American Ambassador to Brazil. My conclusions were that both official views are wrong: the United States does not help Brazil a lot (Gordon) or a little (Campos), but rather exploits Brazil unmercifully and stunts and distorts its economic development. In this article I propose to probe more deeply into these questions, especially in the hope of throwing light on a few of the numerous and often hidden mechanisms of which the imperialist countries make use in their relations with the colonial and semi-colonial countries of the underdeveloped world.

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