 This is the Alto-Bany region of Bolivia in South America. Side of a land colonization project, it is literally a new frontier. It is one of many new frontiers unfolding today in our sister republics to the south. Frontiers springing from the same needs, the same hopes, the same aspirations which once beckoned pioneers to our own far west. And here is on that earlier, older American frontier of another era, the United States Army has a role to play and a mission to accomplish. My name is Ray Morgan. Most Americans are aware of the United States Army's role in the development of our own west. A saga which began with exploration in the days of Thomas Jefferson and ended with the cavalry charging over the hill to protect wagon trains from Indian raids in the days following the Civil War. We are familiar too with the continuing work of the Army's Corps of Engineers in such crucial enterprises as flood control. This is the background which your Army today is bringing in the form of technical advice and experience to the armed forces of Latin America in their own efforts to serve as well as to defend their own countries. The program is called Civic Action. This is La Paz, the city of peace, some 13,000 feet up in the Bolivian Andes. It has been said that airplanes do not land in La Paz. They merely fly along and stop. So, rarefied is the air in this capital city of the Altiplano, the high plateau region of the Andes, that new arrivals must often resort to oxygen masks during their first few days. To the residents, however, it is a healthy climate, cool and inviting, and one in which are sometimes performed awesome feats of human endurance. The Bolivius population, the thin, cool air of the Altiplano, is the ideal place to live. And this is a Bolivian problem. For the Indian farmer, who makes up the majority of the Bolivius population, has for centuries lived a precarious existence on a dry, almost sterile, overpopulated soil, clinging to the mountains of his birth, while vast regions of fertile lowlands remain untouched by human hands, abandoned to lush and useless jungle. For centuries, only a small portion of Bolivia's arable land has been under cultivation, despite the existence of millions of landless peasants in other parts of the country. Until 1960, this was part of Bolivia's unused, inaccessible jungle. What has happened since here in the Alto-Bene region, through the joint efforts of the Bolivian and American governments, is perhaps the best example in South America of what a civic action program can really accomplish. I'm Captain Alfredo Luro of Bolivia. The area about which Mr. Morgan speaks, the Alto-Bene, is a rich valley lying along the Beni River, some 250 kilometers from La Paz, our capital city. In 1959, some 35,000 acres of this rich land was set aside by our government for colonization by families of the Aymara Indians, a people who for centuries have suffered the privations of life on the harsh Altiplano. First, with help and technical advice from the United States' aid mission, a road was cut through the jungle, connecting the area with the nearest town, Caranavi, 76 kilometers away. Meanwhile, families were being carefully screened for their suitability to develop the colony. Physical examinations were given, medical attention, and immunization shots were needed. You must understand that for one who has grown up on the high lands of the Altiplano, moving to the low, hot regions of a valley like the Alto-Bene, is like moving to a strange land which has a totally different climate. Yet they did come, thousands of them. Coming from the cold Altiplano, their clothing is unsuited to the tropical climate of the Alto-Bene, and in most cases, they are too poor to buy even the simplest clothing. And so the Hiramich family is issued a pair of work trousers, two shirts, a hat, sandals. For most of these men, the simplest form of factory-made hoe or shovel is a modern tool of agriculture. Since these are farmers, there is also animal life. Each family receives three chickens, one rooster and two hens, all from purebred stock. Also, each community has available a purebred bore for breeding with sows owned by the new settlers. But the real reward is land, 30 acres of it. 30 acres of land and a house. Not much of a house, a temporary structure, but it will last until the settler can build his own permanent dwelling. Of the 30 acres awarded to each family, five have been cleared in advance by men of the Bolivian army. Two and a half acres have been planted in crops that will provide the immediate needs of the family for fresh food. The other two and a half acres of cleared fields may be used by the settler to plant any crop of his choice. By agreement, the remaining 25 acres belonging to each family must be planted in crops determined by agricultural experts to be most suited to the land and most in demand in the marketplace. Some parts of our new community might seem strange to North American eyes. Our cleared fields, for instance, with the three stumps still standing. But since cultivation is done by hand, not by machines, the stumps are no problem. In this climate, they will soon rot away, helping to enrich this virgin already fertile soil. The houses too are clustered together in communities. The plan was to have each family's house in the midst of its own fields, but it quickly became apparent that the Indians, used to the tribal custom of living closely together, became lonely when separated, and so we changed the plan to feed the people. There are 16 houses in each community and five communities in the project. Altobeni is only the first of such projects. As fast as the Bolivian army and the technical advisors from the military assistance program here in Bolivia can build new roads, clear fields and build the houses, other fertile valleys will be opened up to settlers, giving them an opportunity to attain, through their own hard work, a far better way of life than they or their ancestors have ever known. The Altobeni Resettlement Program is the largest, presently working as part of the United States Aid Program for Latin America. A pilot program for others to follow, it is already making possible a new life for people who, until just a short time ago, had no future beyond bare existence. We share our hemisphere with many such people. The 200 million citizens of Latin America occupy a potentially rich land mass, more than two and one half times the size of the United States. Yet more than half suffer from infectious or dietary disease, and more than half have never slept in a bed. Perhaps the main problem, the obstacle which stands in the way of solution for so many others, is illiteracy. In many parts of Latin America, as many as three citizens out of four cannot read or write. Without education, development of a modern industrial nation is obviously impossible. In the Latin American Republic of Colombia, the illiteracy rate is such that the average army recruit spends much of his time in service, simply learning to read and write. This situation has now been recognized as a perfect opportunity for the emerging concept of army civic action. Civic action in Colombia, as elsewhere in Latin America, is a way of using the organization and technical skills of the nation's army to attack pressing social problems. Civilian and military officials of the government, working with various forms of United States assistance and technical advice, have inaugurated here an integrated intensive program of teaching people to read and write, beginning with the young army recruit who will eventually take this knowledge back to his home community. I am Emilio Rojas, a lieutenant in the Colombian army. This is the little town of Fosca, high up in the rugged mountains of the Colombian Andes. Synically, it is beautiful. But one does not live on a scenery, and for Fosca's few thousand inhabitants, life is often hard. This is how army civic action first came to Fosca on a recent Sunday, officially designated Civic Action Day. Civic Action Day in Fosca, as in other towns throughout the nation, was a kind of an announcement, an advertisement to tell the local population that something new was about to happen. It was an occasion for farmers to bring their produce in for sale. For everyone involved in the project, including U.S. advisors, to meet and participate in a concerted demonstration of what civic action aims to accomplish. Stations were set up around the village square to which people with a problem might go for assistance. A Colombian army veterinarian, for instance, was in hand to take care of livestock problems. For the pressing problems of the community's very poor, there was a free food distribution from army commissary stores. There were movies for the children, repair of household pots and pans for the madras, and shoe repairs for everybody. There were haircuts and free soft drinks. There were medical examinations and medicine. But the event was primarily an introduction for things to come, a way of dramatizing this new program so that those for whom it is intended would be encouraged to come forth and make use of it. The utter means of transportation by road and by air will itself do much to further Colombia's economic advance. Here, too, civic action is extremely active. This operation involving Colombian army personnel and U.S. technical advisors is designed to create an airstrip capable of handling larger cargo-carrying aircraft near the town of Melgar. Already at Melgar, a water purification plant has been constructed and is now regularly operated by Colombian army personnel. A measure of preventive hygiene. It is typical of such programs planned for rural areas throughout Colombia. This is the Tolima Highway Project. When completed, it will provide an all-weather road into an area which today is inaccessible, except by mule or on foot. Working from opposite ends of the road, two Colombian army engineer units have so far completed about half of the 200 kilometers of roads and bridges. During this project, we have had the continuous assistance of experts from the United States Army Corps of Engineers. Their work and advice has served as a valuable training program for our own military engineers. In Colombia, the army represents today more than a means for national defense. It is a repository of skills and technical knowledge which can be drawn upon by all our people. Trained personnel of the army are today bringing their skills to the immediate problems of their countrymen. While at the same time, they endeavor to pass on those skills to coming generations that they may be better able to help themselves. This, in Colombia, is the meaning of civic action. Largest of the Latin American civic action programs, which might be described as putting armies to their maximum peacetime use, is the Civic Action Program of Ecuador. Here in this Andean nation, which literally straddles the equator, the United States Department of Defense has committed some $1,800,000 to the development of a civic action program as broad as the needs of a people struggling against the iron rule of inherited poverty. I am Guillermo Ortiz Diaz of the Ecuadorian Army. This is our capital city of Quito, nestled in a valley sometimes called the Avenue of Volcanoes. Only 15 miles from the equator, it's almost two miles above sea level so that days are warm and nights are cool. In Quito, the past merges with the present. Centuries before modern Quito was founded by the Spaniards. It was the capital of the Indian kingdom of Quito. Later, it bowed to the mighty Incas, who made the capital of their northern kingdom. Both in Quito and in smaller cities, scattered throughout the Andean highlands, Indians are still a major part of the Ecuadorian scene. Long before our country was settled by the Spaniards, Indians were bringing their products to the village market to trade for products brought by other Indians from as far off as the headwaters of the Amazon. Early on Saturday morning, Indians still come down from the hills to bring their wares to the market. Their customs have changed little over the centuries. Their blankets and shoals are fine and durable and much in demand. But they are true bargainers. Pictures, as such scenes appear, they must in time give way to more modern techniques. We can no longer afford methods such as days for the drying of cocoa beans, for example. Some of the world's most beautiful harbors, here in Ecuador, are the site also of much poverty. These tank trucks contain pure water which in parts of the country is a precious commodity the poor cannot afford. Recently, civic action in Ecuador has built 10 1,000 gallon water tanks in a region where until now whole families were often left with only 25 gallons of water for an entire month. Five large tank trucks now haul water to key distribution centers which together serve some 60,000 people. In a short time and at little cost, the distribution system has raised the average family water supply to 100 gallons a day. At the distribution point, each family has its own 55-gallon drum in which to store water until it's taken home. Water, a simple necessity of life, is for these children of Guayaquil a great and noble luxury. Demolition experts of the Ecuadorian and the United States armies are also working to improve transportation between the highlands of the Andes and the coastal lowlands. Lack of adequate means of transportation between these regions is still an economic handicap. There has been much progress, but in the highlands of the interior are still some of the most isolated inhabited portions of South America. Irrigation is another problem now on the attack. Our army has the manpower for such essential projects as the digging of canals and we are putting that manpower to work. Both road building and irrigation programs are profiting from the use of United States equipment and technical advisors from the United States military assistance program. With cranes and bulldozers or simple hand tools, progress is being made. Sometimes they might be easier ways but the easy way is not available and so it's done the hard way. The important thing is that the work go forward and that everyone participates who has time and strength or skill. There are more efficient ways to make logs into planks but where other means are lacking it's surprising what can be done by hand work and determination. Civic action in Ecuador begins with the army but it includes men and women from every walk of life. This is a typical street building program in a provincial city. The methods are sometimes slow and primitive but they work. One must begin somewhere and the way to begin is begin. Military civic action in Ecuador as elsewhere in Latin America is only part of an overall program that involves many agencies of our own government the Alliance for Progress and the United Nations as well as the military assistance program of the United States. With so much to be done there is work for everyone. More than half of all the people of Latin America are without sufficient food and most of them live other lives without medical attention of any kind. These are problems which must be attacked from all sides and very resource are our disposal unless we are prepared to see poverty and disease of the body converted to a disease of the soul by the prophets of communism. Without doubt, the most important object of all our efforts is education. All Latin America needs doctors, engineers and technicians. We must have educated men and women able to master scientific agriculture and the work of modern industrialization. Right now in Latin America there are some 20 million children waiting to begin their education. When they are well started when new generations have acquired the priceless gift of literacy many of our other problems will begin to solve themselves. It was Thomas Jefferson who gave our own army a major responsibility of the American frontier. Beginning with the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804 army explorers did much to open vast regions of the North American continent to settlement and civilization. Remembering Jefferson's unfailing concern for the welfare of the common man it seems more than likely that he would be pleased to see the armies of the southern half of our hemisphere today assuming similar responsibilities in the program we call Civic Action.