by John F. McManus
Reprinted with permission from The Birch Log, November 10, 1977
Belmont, Massachusetts—Since the end of World War II, the United States has poured several hundred billion dollars down foreign aid ratholes. The results of our generosity are anything but appealing. We are actually more despised around the globe than ever before. And the containment of Communism, which the giveaways were supposed to accomplish, is obviously a failure.Indirect Foreign Aid
Much of the vast outpouring of taxpayers’ dollars is a direct transfer from our government to over one hundred other governments. But a healthy chunk of the billions we give away reaches various destinations indirectly, through such international lending institutions as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the UN Development Program, and the Inter-American Development Bank.
In spite of the fact that the United States supplies as much as 20 percent of their funds, these organizations regularly thumb their noses at any suggestion of how the money is to be used. When Florida Congressman Bill Young recently asked World Bank President Robert McNamara for an invitation to attend one of his meetings in order to learn how loans are approved, he was politely told that World Bank affairs were none of his business.Loans to Vietnam
Earlier this year, Young learned that a World Bank subsidiary known as the International Development Association (IDA) was planning to supply an interest-free, 50-year loan to the Communists who conquered all of Vietnam. These are the individuals, of course, who boast of inflicting half a million casualties on our military, whose police state repressions are becoming well-known, and who have yet to divulge the whereabouts of over 2,500 Americans still listed as missing in action.
The current Foreign Aid Appropriations bill contains a grant to the IDA of $950 million. Because some of these funds are earmarked for countries like Vietnam, Congressman Young offered an amendment to the bill, stipulating that no U.S. dollars may be sent “either directly or indirectly” to Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, or Uganda. He said the Vietnamese “are planning on improving an irrigation facility in the Mekong Delta. Maybe they’ll come across the bodies of some American MIAs while they’re digging the ditches!”Administration Stops Young
On June 22, the House of Representatives passed the Young Amendment by a whopping 295-115 vote, a development which spurred World Bank moguls into action. In a letter to Secretary of the Treasury Michael Blumenthal, Robert McNamara insisted that “no condition can be imposed which would restrict the power of the bank.” President Carter agreed and subsequent Administration pressure prompted the Senate to reject the Young proposal. When the entire aid bill went through a House-Senate conference, the Young prohibition against funding to Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Uganda was scrapped.
So America’s beleaguered taxpayers will now send their hard-earned dollars to Hanoi, courtesy of Jimmy Carter and the World Bank. Congressman Young has also revealed that we will send $10 million to Communist Angola, $13.5 million to Communist Cuba, and $30 million to Idi Amin’s Uganda through the United Nations Development Program.
The Florida Congressman reported that he requested some of these organizations to provide an accounting of the loans involving American dollars. He got nowhere and now doubts that audits are ever made. And on top of everything, Secretary of State Cyrus Vance told him that the Administration plans to double all foreign aid expenditures in the next five years!