Real Security

Give more aid to poor nations, urges Robert McNamara

Even when he was U.S. Secretary of Defense, Robert S. McNamara thought the nation had reached "the point at which it does not buy more security for itself simply by buying more military hardware." The greatest threat, he declared in an eerily prescient 1966 speech, comes from rebellious violence in poor countries. During his eleven years as president of the World Bank, McNamara's convictions have deepened, and last week, appearing at the University of Chicago to accept a $25,000 prize for promoting international understanding, the former Defense Secretary declared that "excessive military spending can reduce security rather than strengthen it." Reason: the outlays swallow resources needed to reduce global poverty.

Ironically, McNamara's point was lost on 1,000 protesters, mainly students, who burned him in effigy because they could not forgive his role in shaping Viet Nam War strategy. Their enthusiasm was misplaced; the rioters themselves could hardly have denounced "the mad momentum" of the arms race with more passionate eloquence than McNamara. Said he:

"Global defense expenditures have grown so large that it is difficult to grasp their full dimensions. The overall total is now in excess of $400 billion a year." The nearly $30 billion spent annually on arms research and development is more than "is spent on the problems of energy, health, education and food combined." Does the money buy greater security? McNamara asked. "No. At these exaggerated levels, only greater risk, greater danger, and greater delay in getting on with life's real purposes."

While military expenditures have soared, said McNamara, "there are today more than 1 billion human beings in the developing countries whose incomes per head [adjusted for inflation] have risen only about $2 a year: from $130 in 1965 to $150 in 1975. But what is beyond the power of any set of statistics to illustrate is the inhuman degradation the vast majority of these individuals are condemned to ... Malnutrition saps their energy, stunts their bodies and shortens their lives. Illiteracy darkens their minds..."

The poverty could be alleviated greatly by "a comparatively small contribution in money and skills from the developed world," said McNamara. Making the contribution would help stabilize poor nations and thus help the security of the U.S. In addition, it would assist the American economy, which, McNamara said, "increasingly depends on the ability of the developing nations both to purchase its exports and to supply it with important raw materials."

But McNamara believes the main reason for helping struggling countries is not self-interested economics. Said he: "The fundamental case is the moral one. The whole of human history has recognized the principle that the rich and powerful have a moral obligation to assist the poor and the weak. That is what the sense of community is all about--any community: the community of the family, the community of the nation, the community of nations itself."

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