The IMF as a ‘mantle of multilateral anonymity’: US-IMF-Brazil relations, 1956–9

ABSTRACT This study examines United States (US)-International Monetary Fund (IMF)-Brazil relations amid international financial negotiations in the late 1950s. Washington pressed President Juscelino Kubitschek’s government into seeking loans conditional on the IMF’s standby agreements to advance US foreign economic policy in Brazil. The United States’ tough position persisted despite rising anti-US sentiment in Latin America and the potential damage to United States-Brazil relations, which demonstrates the continuity of US president Dwight D. Eisenhower’s foreign policy. The case of Kubitschek’s Brazil contributes to our understanding of the IMF’s policies in Latin America, the United States’ ongoing economic concerns and Brazilian foreign policy.