The United States of America, known for incredibly rich history, overwhelming pride and upholds so much tradition. This country, inhabited by hundreds of millions, has protected, governed and has been a home to them for hundreds of years. As the world has progressed throughout time, the American people have seen much, experienced incredible human feats such as experiencing flight for the first time, or walking on the moon thousands of miles away as they eagerly watched.
The people have also experienced times when millions have been murdered in the world for a trait which was given at birth. Specifically this time was the holocaust and World War II, when millions of anti semitists stripped jewish people and many others of all universal rights, including their lives in many cases. These times of intense and vicious atrocities led The United States, a country with incredible beliefs in the rights of others, to act against the heathens committing these atrocities.
The events of World War II gave way to a divided world, Russia laid out the iron curtain and America was faced with many dilemmas. The United States began to provide aid to those who endured hardships in the crumbled European nations. Actions taken such as the Berlin Airlift provided those famined with nourishment and the Marshall Plan vowed to rebuild European Nations destroyed by the war, a budget of 13 billion USD set on this. These were the first sparks of a worldwide effort in which the United States provided aid to people and countries not as fortunate.
Over seventy years have passed since these times and foreign aid has expanded to all reaches of the world; people are in need more than ever and the United States has made itself obliged to provide this aid, but people have began to wonder if it’s truly the proper thing to do. I will discuss the history of foreign assistance, the two most prominent parts to the foreign assistance program, and why it is wise to keep funding these efforts. It is important to understand what series of events the United States has taken to be in a position of spending 42. Billion dollars in 2016 to take care of individuals thousands of miles away when there may be someone facing the same odds who is in any city in the United States.
The foreign assistance act of 1961 states “the Congress declares that a principal objective of the foreign policy of the United States is the encouragement and sustained support of the people of developing countries in their efforts to acquire the knowledge and resources essential to development and to build the economic, political, and social institutions which will improve the quality of their lives. ”
This way of thinking, that being one of supporting developing countries to build their institutions, began after World War II, in the Cold War where tensions were high and it was of utmost importance to rebuild Europe stronger than before. By doing this, The United States builds allies, strengthening our opposition against the Soviet Union, the rival superpower of the time. By understanding why the United States is involved in foreign assistance, you can comprehend the many different ways in which the United States must have to act on these foreign assistance programs.
The two main points that are dealt with in the foreign assistance program are economic and development assistance as well as security assistance. Foreign economic and development assistance provides an impoverished nation with funds and teams devoted to stabilize the economy of the specific country. This is important because if an economy is stabilized, then the assistance can be halted and the country will be perfectly self reliant without any intervention.
That is the goal of the Assistance program, to be able to develop a country which is once very dependent on help from others to be able to take care of it’s people economically through development. “In the years after World War II, the United States quickly became the world’s largest supplier of foreign aid. In fact, the United States assumed the position of a world superpower, and the government sought to implement a foreign policy that would maintain that status. By providing assistance to other countries, the United States hoped to strengthen a liberal, international economic order and promote stable, democratic governments.
At the same time, it sought to avoid another economic depression and world war” By understanding the history of the United States, specifically the Great Depression, one can infer by reading this that Foreign assistance is more than philanthropic good deeds made by a wealthy government, but an ingenious, calculated political strategy to maintain the United States superpower position in the world by strengthening the world’s economy and government, all the while protecting it’s own economy and preventing another catastrophic war.
Even more important than Economic assistance, security Assistance is the action that the United States takes to maintain optimal national security for a country and for our own by intervening in many foreign affairs worldwide in which may prove dangerous to our national security. This segment of the United States Foreign Assistance Program has never been more important than in the modern era. In modern times, the world has proven itself to be more dangerous than ever for various reasons. “Prior to World War II, America felt secure with the protection provided by the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
The country limited its engagement abroad and did not provide foreign aid to any appreciable degree. After World War II, with the beginning of the Cold War (1946–1991) and the proliferation of intercontinental ballistic missiles, the United States could not return to its prewar isolationism. Not only did this change require Americans to rearm but also to become directly involved in restoring prosperity in Europe and in the economic and political welfare of developing nations in the world. Through foreign aid programs, America sought to spread its ideals and to combat the Communist threat to the nation’s security.
This statement by R. Young examines how the United States may no longer or ever again be able to remain isolated because weapons technology has advanced to far with intercontinental missiles capable of precise destruction from the other side of the planet. By understanding this, one can believe that the world has become too dangerous for the United States to work alone; instead it is critical to continue foreign assistance programs, especially the security aspect. Now although the United States hasn’t always been one to assist developing nations, it is certainly engrossed in this system now.
It is different now than ever before. The United States government has strayed from the postwar European Assistance decades ago because these countries are all back on their feet in terms of economic stability and are fully developed. Instead the government has began to put nearly all of its Foreign assistance resources towards the middle east. Countries such as Afghanistan, Israel, Egypt and Jordan all have allocated over 8 Billion USD in foreign assistance efforts together. This is only a fraction of the total foreign assistance program, totalling an allocation of over 40 Billion USD in the current year 2017.
Many argue today that the foreign assistance spending is out of hand for reasons such as the United States interfering in foreign affairs where we attempt to provide aid and assistance but results in military action and resulting in our involvement in violent actions and Americans being killed. For example after 9/11 attacks, the United States reacted immediately by attacking Afghanistan, targetting Al-Queda. After the attacks, plans were made described in this excerpt from National Security by Kim Evans.
“Phase Four—The United States calls this phase “security and stability operations. It began on December 22, 2001, when a new leader—Hamid Karzai (an Afghani Pashtun)—was installed as the head of the nation’s interim government. However, bringing security and stability to Afghanistan proved to be a daunting task. ” Especially noted in this quotation is that bringing security and stability to Afghanistan is proved to be a daunting task.
An alarming number of people in America believed the efforts on restoration were not going well at all. In September 2006 pollsters from Gallup Organization asked, In general, how would you say things are going for the U. S. in Afghanistan: very well, moderately well, moderately badly, or very badly? ” The results indicate a nearly even split. Forty-nine percent of those asked believe that things are going well in Afghanistan (6% very well and 43% moderately well). Forty-six percent think that things are going badly. ” However, the foreign assistance provided in Afghanistan during this time was absolutely necessary, because without it, Afghanistan would continue to be a threat to the United States.