38 – The Advent of International Aid

Historically, the idea that richer countries should provide financial aid to poorer countries is a fairly recent one. The concept would have been incomprehensible to the colonizing powers of the 18th and 19th centuries. From their point of view, colonies existed in order to benefit the colonizing power. That’s why nations colonized other regions. They expected to benefit from it. The colonized territory provided needed raw materials–food, minerals, lumber, perhaps slaves–and served as a market for manufactured goods.

After the Second World War, however, a different attitude began to become common. Colonization was no longer considered justifiable, and more and more former colonies achieved independence. Of course, once they achieved that independence it was also expected that they would look after their own affairs. But it became clear by the 1960s that–after centuries of colonial administration–many developing nations simply did not have adequate local expertise or resources to do this. Industrially developed nations, such as the United States, which had prospered after the war, felt a new sense of responsibility to assist countries which were not as fortunate.

In his famous 1961 inaugural speech, US President John Kennedy spoke directly to the people of the Third World:

To those people in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required, not because the Communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

Kennedy’s inaugural speech was one of the great speeches of the 20th century, although fear of Communism was probably a greater motivator than the president admitted. And, in fact, during his administration the world almost came to nuclear war over the issue of the Soviet Union and Cuba. The same president who had made a pledge to the “people in the huts and villages of half the globe” later addressed not only the American people but also the citizens of Cuba:

I want to say a few words to the captive people of Cuba, to whom this speech is being directly carried by special radio facilities. I speak to you as a friend, as one who knows of your deep attachment to your fatherland, as one who shares your aspirations for liberty and justice for all. And I have watched and the American people have watched with deep sorrow how your nationalist revolution was betrayed . . . and how your fatherland fell under foreign domination. Now your leaders are no longer Cuban leaders inspired by Cuban ideals. They are puppets and agents of an international conspiracy which has turned Cuba against your friends and neighbours in the Americas. . . .

One of the factors which led Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon Johnson, to authorize the 1965 invasion of the Dominican Republic was a fear that the country might succumb to a Cuban-style revolution.