FOREIGN AID, FOREIGN POLICY AND DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT Louis A. Picard PIA 2096/PIA 2490 Week Six

Foreign Aid Course VIETNAM

Vietnam: Why? ► Fall of China ► French Civilizing Mission ► Part of Marshall Plan ► March of Folly? (Barbara Tuchman)

Vietnam: The Early Years ► Beginnings Economic and Military Assistance Program in Indo-China ► Then Part of the French Empire ► U.S. subsidizing French Rule and fight against Communism in Vietnam ► Domino Theory

The Model ► Six Asian countries: - Formosa, the three Associated States of Indochina, Thailand and the Philippines, ECA programs[i] were“accompanied by military assistance programs, the latter being administered by United States Military Assistance Advisory Groups.”[ii] [i][ii][i][ii] ► [i] Economic Cooperation Administration. [i] ► [ii] Walter R. Sharp, International Technical Assistance (Chicago: Public Administration Service, 1952), p. 48.

Why we were in Vietnam? ► We aid other countries with whom our relationships may be more nearly correct than cordial, because we believe that it is in our interests to maintain friendly contacts with their governments and their people and to keep them from going behind the Iron Curtain.[i] [i] ► ► [i] Speech by Arthur Z. Gardiner, Director United States Operations Mission in Viet-nam, address given to the Saigon Rotary Club on September 22, 1960 (Washington, D.C.: Department of State and U.S. Government Printer, 1961). [i]

Context ► Controversy developed over the use and abuse of foreign aid at the end of the 1950s. ► Malayan Model ► William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick published a highly influential (and controversial) book, The Ugly American (New York: Fawcett, 1960) (New York: Fawcett, 1960)

Counter-narrative ► Graham Greene’s much better book: ► The Quiet American ( Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1957). ► Critique of U.S. assumptions about Asia

Creation of U.S. Agency for International Development ► “to strengthen friendly foreign countries by encouraging the development of their free economic institutions and productive capabilities, and by minimizing or eliminating barriers to the flow of private investment capital.”[i] [i] ► A Permanent Organizational Structure. ► [i] Public Law as published by the United States Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., September 4, [i]

The Models ► Winning Hearts and Minds ► Villagization- Rural Community Development ► Fortified Villages- The Strategic Hamlet program ► Phoenix Program (The Use of force against civilians including assassination and Torture)

The Assumption ► Americans assumed a particular kind of relationship with the Vietnamese; they had expected the Vietnamese to trust them, to take their advice with gratitude, and to cooperate in their mutual enterprise of defeating the Communists.[i] [i] ► [i] Frances FitzGerald, Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam (New York: Vintage, 1972), P [i]

Rural Development ► John Paul Vann in the late 1960s symbolized U.S. special operations in Vietnam. Overtly he was an USAID official in the office of Civil Operations and Revolutionary Development Support (CORDS).[i] [i] ► [i] David Maraniss, They Marched into Sunlight: War and Peace, Vietnam and America, October 1967 (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2003), p [i]

The Book NEIL SHEEHAN NEIL SHEEHAN A Bright Shining Lie : John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam A Bright Shining Lie : John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam (New York: Vintage Books, 1988). (New York: Vintage Books, 1988).

Picard’s View ► Represents the Best and Worst of Foreign Aid Policy ► “We had to burn the village in order to save it” ► Strategies of Community Develop and capacity building have their origins in 1950s Vietnam

The Best ► Focus on Community Development ► Rural Industrialization and (later) micro- credit ► Foreign Aid Field Officers- on the ground ► Basic Needs

The End: 1965 ► Shift from Assistance to War ► Ten Year Conflict ► Parallel with Iraq (Imagining Ten years of an Iraq involvement) ► Donor Fatigue: 1975

The Legacy ► The Legacy of Vietnam for the Third World was to solidify in the minds of LDC intellectuals and elites an image of the West which made no distinction between the United States and the Western European former colonial powers.[i] [i] ► [i] Edmund Stillman and William Pfaff, Power and Impotence: The Failure of America’s Foreign Policy (New York: Random House, 1966), p [i]

The Counter Narrative GOAL: To conceive of a rival hypothesis that could reverse perceived reality and provides a possible policy option for future attention because of its very plausibility.

Three Views of Foreign Aid- A Reminder 1. Part of Balance of Power- Carrot and Stick Approach (based on exchange Theory 2. Commercial Promotion: Focus on International Trade 3. Humanitarian Theory: Moral Imperative

Why Foreign Aid? ► U.N. Ambassador Jeanne Kirkpatrick’s alleged comment about why we provided foreign aid to Zaire’s Mobutu “He may be a Son-of-a-Bitch but he’s Our Son-of-a-Bitch.”

Three Views of Foreign Aid- A Reminder 1. Part of Balance of Power- Carrot and Stick Approach (based on exchange Theory 2. Commercial Promotion: Focus on International Trade 3. Humanitarian Theory: Moral Imperative