Where Diplomats Fear to Tread

From the Ford Foundation, which has spent close to $1 billion in charitable, educational and scientific pursuits, came word last week of a pioneer diplomatic move. President Henry T. Heald announced before a meeting of the Chicago Executives' Club that the foundation will devote $500,000 toward stimulating a cultural interchange between the U.S. and Poland. Aware of the problems involved in dealing with a nation that teeters so warily in the Soviet shadow, Heald said that "recent developments," i.e., the Polish deliverance from Moscow's iron rule, as well as the Eisenhower Administration's tentative foreign aid program for Poland (TIME, Jan. 14), "appeared to us to call for a positive response."

The Ford Foundation plans--which were approved quietly by the U.S. State Department--call for exchange visits between Poland and the U.S. and West European countries of engineers, social science professionals, architects, educators and students, as well as shipments of books and periodicals to Polish libraries, institutions and individuals. "We know," Heald said, "that activity of an educational or scientific character is not a substitute for the essential security efforts of our Government. But we have the conviction that in the development of international understanding there is a proper and vital role for private institutions, including private philanthropy."

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