Inclusion of the new democracies in NATO and the European Community is the simplest, cheapest, and most important kind of aid, because it expresses Western solidarity and offers Western democratic associations. If the Western Europeans are slow or resistant to offering membership in these institutions, the United States could take the initiative. By including the new democracies in the democracies' arrangements for trade, politics, and security we reinforce the democratic tendencies in their societies. We should not be fearful of helping with humanitarian aid, debt relief, and know-how about free markets and free societies. We should not worry much about posing obstacles to the long-run development of free markets.
Free markets have great vitality.
Neither is a good prescription, for us or for the former Soviets. In thinking about aid for the former Soviet Union we should ask ourselves the following six questions. We do not mean simply that prices are free to fluctuate. There must also be guarantees that property rights will be respected and that contracts will be honored. There must be a financial system able to move financial resources around to match the real transfers that are taking place.