The End of USAID
In the postwar era bounteous US foreign aid reshaped the world, for better or worse. With the culling of USAID those days are over.
In 1941, with Europe and Asia convulsed by war, Henry Luce, founder of TIME and Life magazines, published a long essay describing the contours of what he called an emerging ‘American Century’ in which the US would be called upon to rebuild a world wracked by conflict and depression. Luce welcomed this opportunity, but he worried that his countrymen would baulk at the vast responsibilities of international leadership: ‘As we look out at the rest of the world we are confused; we don’t know what to do.’ Four grisly years later, Harry Truman had no such qualms. He embraced the postwar moment as a chance to assert national primacy, presenting US democratic, economic, and scientific accomplishments as instruments of shared peace and prosperity. The US, Truman contended, would be a benevolent superpower, committing itself to the uplift of millions of poor and war-weary people. An expansive foreign aid portfolio grew out of this commitment.
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