Point Four, Soviet Style:
RUBINSTEIN, ALVIN Z.
Point Four, Soviet Style Russia's economic courtship of underdeveloped South Asia is bringing her political gains, as the West ignores the new challenge By Alvin Z. Rubinstein Alvin Z....
...Much is being done...
...India's basically Western-oriented leadership might be tempted to expand its contacts with the Communist world...
...Despite the critical need for investment capital, for example...
...Moscow has established its own Point Four program for the non-Communist countries of the region...
...The Soviets also offered to build the Aswan Dam complex, a project vitally important to the economic future of Egypt...
...Burma must export rice...
...The West was far better equipped to provide the necessary skilled personnel and capital equipment, but the shortsightedness of the American steel companies made the Indian-Soviet agreement possible...
...India's recent decision to turn to Moscow for help in building a steel mill was ironic, if not tragic...
...To convince them of the peaceful character of Soviet policy, encourage their present neutralist orientation, and enhance Soviet prestige at the expense of the West...
...With flexibility and vision, cooperation between private capital and these fledgling...
...But more is needed, and this must be complemented by a more imaginative and generous approach to UN endeavors...
...through the long years of toil and education which lie ahead, is America's greatest asset in Asia...
...but the Egyptians were left with the clear impression that Western support was motivated more by fear of Soviet penetration than by the urgency of Egypt's needs...
...Totalitarian regimes, on the other hand, can subordinate economic and commercial policy to political objectives...
...President Eisenhowers offer of a special $200-million fund for regional economic development was rejected last April by the South Asian nations at the Simla Conference...
...It undoubtedly entered into Moscow's calculations, for Soviet ideology has long favored the denial of overseas markets to "capitalist" countries as an effective means of disrupting Western power...
...The continued willingness of volunteer groups to "live" the Point Four concept from day to day...
...Should the current venture prove a success...
...CARE, and the Christian Rural Overseas Association are actively engaged in constructive work on a grassroots level--the level on which democracy must become a way of life if the nationalist revolutions of Asia are to remain vigorous and resist the temptation of totalitarian shortcuts...
...Perhaps the U.S...
...To pay its way in foreign trade...
...Granted that the difficulties facing the West are enormous, the Soviet challenge must nonetheless be countered...
...Recent Soviet state visits to India...
...Though vigorously opposed to Communism domestically, the Burmese Government has been forced, by economic necessity and American shortsightedness, into ever-widening economic relations with the Communist world...
...These cover a wide range of projects from the construction of steel plants to the shipment of tractors...
...In July 1953, the Soviets startled the United Nations by announcing their decision to contribute to the UN Expanded Program of Technical Assistance...
...Western governments are unquestionably limited in their approach by legislative indecisiveness and the vagaries of domestic politics...
...Yet, Standard Oil recently negotiated a 25-year agreement with India...
...Point Four, Soviet Style Russia's economic courtship of underdeveloped South Asia is bringing her political gains, as the West ignores the new challenge By Alvin Z. Rubinstein Alvin Z. Rubinstein, a former naval officer with a PhD in political science from Penn, has written for Current History and the Russian Review...
...indeed, Stalinist policy persistently sought to undermine the effectiveness of UN projects...
...companies' profits would have been small, but the customer's purchasing potential should have received more consideration...
...Operating bilaterally, the Soviet Union has negotiated a series of important economic agreements with Burma...
...Its success should be studied and the lessons applied to other enterprises, e.g., chemicals and nuclear power...
...Moscow has also reversed its former opposition to the Special United Nations Fund for Economic Development...
...Alert to a political opportunity, the Soviet Union concluded a three-year agreement with Burma last July 1, providing industrial equipment, agricultural machinery, and technicians in exchange for Burmese rice...
...Meanwhile, the number of Asians studying in the Soviet Union is steadily increasing, and the prospect of Soviet aid is starting to enter into the fiscal calculations of needy countries...
...The reluctance of American private enterprise to invest in India is not without cause, and the Indian Government is largely responsible...
...Though the agreement was based on conservative commercial practices and terms, the Kremlin's timely action won it much political capital...
...India has already begun to move in this direction...
...Egypt...
...The American Point Four program has accomplished a great deal...
...India and Afghanistan...
...Despite the lip-service paid to regional planning, each nation remains absorbed in its own internal problems and unwilling to think in broader terms...
...The latter's inability to cooperate among themselves for mutual economic ends, much less with the West, serves to retard their development...
...Burma and Afghanistan made a powerful impression on those uncommitted nations...
...No one questions New Delhi's right to expand the publicly owned and operated sector of the economy...
...However, a Burmese suggestion that the United States purchase its rice in return for technical assistance never materialized...
...often socialist-oriented and overly sovereignty-conscious governments is possible...
...This post-Stalinist development epitomizes a fundamental change in Soviet tactics and poses a mortal challenge to the West...
...The Kremlin has undertaken a diplomatic offensive in South Asia and the Middle East on a scale never before attempted...
...This bid was frustrated when, after prolonged negotiations, the West and the World Bank agreed to aid Egypt...
...Indonesia and Afghanistan are at the negotiating stage...
...Previously, they had not given "one red ruble...
...The vast resources of the West have scarcely been mobilized in the struggle to win the allegiance of the pivotally important underdeveloped areas of the world...
...The Soviet Government also abandoned its long-time opposition to UNESCO and the International Labor Organization, joining those specialized agencies in April and June 1954 respectively...
...The result would be a major defeat for the West...
...The underdeveloped nations strongly favor this project, and they accept at face value Moscow's untested promise to contribute, forgetting the strong Soviet opposition at the 1953 and 1954 sessions of the Economic and Social Council...
...Another factor complicating the West's task is the petty discords prevalent among the Asians themselves...
...SUNFED is designed to provide low-interest, long-term loans to underdeveloped areas in order to help them "to accelerate their economic development and to finance non-self-liquidating projects which are basic to their economic development...
...Indeed, we have sought to unload some of our surplus rice on needy countries normally dependent on Burma for their supplies...
...The case of Burma is an illustration...
...The expanding student exchange, the increasing secular activities of church groups, and the inspired efforts of countless unsung individuals are all encouraging...
...Such diverse private organizations as the Ford Foundation...
...The underdeveloped countries' initial reluctance to accept Soviet technical and other assistance is waning, and they may soon take full advantage of it...
...In the absence of basic guarantees against arbitrary nationalization and provision for reasonable conversion of profits, however, urgently needed private investment capital will continue to seek outlets elsewhere...
...Private groups, backed by supplemental Government action, are best equipped for the task, whether in the economic, humanitarian or cultural sphere...
Vol. 39 • March 1956 • No. 10
