Roberto de Oliveira Campos

Roberto de Oliveira Campos (17 April 1917 – 9 October 2001) was a Brazilian economist, writer, diplomat, politician and member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters. He served in a number of capacities, including Brazilian ambassador to the United States and to the United Kingdom, minister of planning for the government of Castelo Branco, during the Brazilian military dictatorship, and congressman.

Biography

Early life

Campos was born in Cuiabá, in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil. Initially planning to enter the priesthood, he enrolled in a Catholic seminary in Guaxupé. Later, he received degrees in philosophy and theology from a seminary in Belo Horizonte. The first military president, Marshall Castelo Branco, appointed Campos as his Minister of Planning – and chief economic policy maker, jointly with the Finance Minister Octavio Gouvea de Bulhões – in which capacity he enacted various pro-business and pro-foreign capital – as well as anti-organized-labour – reforms that aimed to modernize the Brazilian economy in a liberal sense. His sympathies for an inconditional pro-American foreign policy and foreign-capital-friendly economic policies earned him, already during the 1960s, his lifelong sobriquet: "Bob Fields" (an anglicized word-to-word rendering of his actual name).

During the late 1960s and 1970s, he disagreed with the increasing amount of state intervention in the economy included in the process of authoritarian modernization achieved by later military administrations and remained at the sidelines, working mostly as an adviser in private enterprise. In 1975, he was appointed Brazilian ambassador to the United Kingdom, remaining in this office for nearly seven years. Two years later, he won the election for an eight-year term as senator for his native state of Mato Grosso.

He died of heart attack on 9 October 2001 at his apartment in Rio de Janeiro. His papers reside at the Universidade Positivo.

He was married. From his marriage resulted two sons and one daughter.

Works (1963) Economia, planejamento e nacionalismo (1988) Guia para os perplexos (1994) A lanterna na popa (1996) Antologia do bom senso (1998) Na virada do milênio