Originally Posted by flysurfer
Btw, driver's licenses (no matter from which country) aren't recognized as a valid form of ID in many countries, as offcials there find it hard to imagine that a "permit to operate a certain type of vehicle" is the same as an ID card.
True. Still, a state-issued DL and birth certificate was more than sufficient for Americans to visit several countries in North America. A lot of countries in the US neighborhood benefited tremendously from making it easy for Americans to visit without a passport.