The 1960s were critical for the effort to control malaria. While the United States was eliminating the last remnants of the disease, the worldwide efforts to eradicate the disease were being abandoned as a hopeless failure. The disparity between the two programs illustrates the complex nature of malaria control. The Global Malaria Eradication Program was a well designed effort whose undertaking became too unmanageable to continue. On the other hand, the success of the American eradication program stemmed from much larger trends that were occurring in the early 20th century economically, politically, and socially. The United States was able to eradicate malaria by eliminating the conditions favorable to the disease throughout the southeast and making transmission of the parasite drastically more difficult.