Pound of Propaganda

For each of its well-publicized and highly visible foreign aid ventures (e.g., a steel mill in India, a road in Afghanistan, the Aswan dam in Egypt), the Soviet Union faithfully exacts a precious pound of propaganda. This week the Organization for European Economic Cooperation showed Soviet generosity to be largely a myth.

During the years 1956-59, reports the OEEC, 16 Western nations, together with Japan, supplied the world's underdeveloped countries with an average $6.9 billion yearly in capital assistance--a category that includes direct aid, reparations payments, long-term loans, guaranteed export credits and contributions to international economic assistance funds. It excludes military grants.

The average yearly foreign aid budget of the entire nine-nation Communist bloc over the same period: a paltry $140 million.* During this time, neither Russia nor Red China ranked among the ten most generous nations. The top ten, and their total four-year contributions:

U.S. $14,062,000,000

France 4,921,000,000

Great Britain 3,149,000,00

West Germany 2,328,000,000

The Netherlands 850,000,000

Japan 588,000,000

Italy 552,000,000

Canada 464,000,000

Belgium 394,000,000

Switzerland 393,000,000

* In direct grants and export credits picked up by foreign nations. Higher Communist claims (about $2.3 billion) usually include credit for purchase of goods these nations could not use, or have not yet picked up.

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