Evening star., 1963-02-26
Our Aid and Asia

The Nation now has received an
other impressive report from the SEN
ate's bipartisan overseas study mission
headed by Majority Leader Mike Mans
field The mission, carried out last fall
at the Presidents request, has involved
searching inquiries into our foreign aid,
and the findings plainly indicate that
such aid, both military and economic,
needs to be re-examined and recast-
drastically so in some cases.
In Senator Mansfield'S words, the
focus Of the new report-which covers
Southeast Asia in generals South Wet
Nam. There the American commitment
is the most direct and deepest" in the
entire region, Involving as 1t does about
$4,000 Americans on dangerous assign
ment and public expenditures at an an
nual level Of hundreds Of millions Of
dollars" Yet, despite this, and although
the government of President Ngo Dinh
Diem deserves high praise for many
things, the disturbing fact is that his
country-after years Of help from us
still seems to be "only at the beginning
of beginning in coping with its grave
inner problems" With that in mind, the
Senate group has warned as follows:
What further effort may be needed for
the survival of the Republic Of Wet Nam in
present circumstances must come from that
source. If 1t is not forthcoming, the United
States can reduce its commitment or aban-
don 1t entirely, but there is no interest OF
the United States in Wet Nam which would
justify, in present circumstances, the con-
version Of the war in that country primarily
into an American war. to be fought primarily
with American lives. It should remain
the fact that the war in Wet Nam is not an
American war in present circumstances. The
words, "in present circumstances" are re-
iterated lest they be overlooked by those who
may assume that there are no circumstances
in which American interests might require
even greater efforts in Southeast Asia than
those which we are now making.
AS for other countries in Southeast
Asia, the report Of Senator ManSfield's
group urges an orderly curtailment of
our aid wherever feasible. 1t urges, also,
that our allieS-such as France and Brit
ain-be called upon to do their fair share
(Which they are not now doing) in a
more equitable distribution of the bur-
den Of safeguarding the area from Com
munist engulfment. However while call
ing for lesSening of our American in
veStment there, the report. counSels
against raShneSS 1t has stated the case
this way: Extreme caution Is in
dicated in this connection, and the dis
cretion Of what to do and when to do
1t must rest with the President. For, If
the attempt is made to alter these pro-
grams via congressional meat-ax cut
OF foreign aid to Southeast Asia, it runs
the risk Of not merely removing the fat
but OF cleaving gap which will lay open
the region to massive chaos and, hence,
jeopardize the present Pacific structure
OF our national security"
Clearly enough, there is no simple or
easy way of curtailing our outlays
abroad. Still, though some of its pas
sageS seem Self-contradictory the report
of the Mansfield mission offers some
sound guidelineS, at least as far as
Southeast Asia is concerned. 1t is a re-
port that should be helpful, certainly,
to the Presidents special committee
headed by General Lucius D. Clay-now
engaged in an exhaustive, "hard-look"
check-up on all aspects of American aid
throughout the world.