Where the Money Goes

"In less than three years," said John Foster Dulles, before flying off last week to a gathering of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization in Canberra, "SEATO has become firmly established and has made a positive contribution to peace and stability." His words were a little optimistic for an organization whose initials may sound like NATO, but unlike NATO is only a paper pact without an armed force of its own. More impressive than Dulles' words is the fact of his strenuous trip, meant to show that despite all of the demands of Europe and the Middle East, Asian defense rates high in the U.S. estimation. Just how high can be measured better in figures than in words: Asia has now become far and away the principal field for U.S. overseas aid. Evidence of the dramatic big shift in U.S. spending:

P: Last year Asia got 70% of all U.S. economic and technical aid. Since 1953, Western Europe's share of U.S. economic and technical aid has dropped from 66% to 8%.

P: In fiscal 1957 economic aid to Asia rose from $960 million to $1.14 billion, and total economic and military aid from $1.5 billion to well over $2 billion. In the same budget, only Greece and Turkey among European NATO powers got any economic aid.

P: The young three-year-old republic of South Viet Nam received more U.S. aid in 1956 ($197 million) than was spent by France, from U.S. funds, over two years, 1955 and 1956 ($126 million).

P: Three countries--Korea, Formosa and South Viet Nam--got 78% of the $600 million in economic and technical assistance made available to the Far East last year.*

P: In the Asian area from Afghanistan to Burma, a territory that includes more than one-fourth of all the free world's population, SEATO partner Pakistan got almost 60% ($108 million) of U.S. funds. India, whose population is almost five times as large as Pakistan's, got a U.S. allocation of $60 million in 1956. One reason for the disparity: neutralist India chooses not to qualify for U.S. military and defense support programs.

The big shift from Europe to Asia in recent years is not so much a change of affections as it is a recognition of 1) how well Western Europe has recovered, and 2) how much the area of imminent danger of Communist penetration shifted to Asia, after the Communists completed their conquest of China in 1949.

Like anyone lavishing money around, and often incurring more ill will among those he disappoints than friendship among those he favors, Uncle Sam finds it hard to get across the notion that aid programs are not certificates of sympathy and merit but barometers of danger, need and opportunity. Cold-war spending is a jumble of crash programs, hard bargaining and erratic generosity. The circumstances which determine who among friends and neutrals gets the most money, however, are not all of U.S. making. Sometimes the degree of a country's exposure to military and political intrusion by the Communists is not matched by its ability to absorb dollars wisely, or its leaders' alertness to, or willingness to confront, this peril.

* Most favored nations in U.S. aid during the period 1948-56, based on U.S. aid per capita: Israel $131, Greece $108, Austria $104, The Netherlands $100, United Kingdom $74, France $72, Norway $70, Formosa $65.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.