Foreign Aid: 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...