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Most equivocal area, and one latent with the most potential trouble, is what the State Department calls NEA—Near East and South Asia. India remains a lethargic giant, hamstrung by too many people, too little food, insufficient managerial skills. Pakistan still smoulders over Kashmir, but is edging away from its flirtation with Red China and seeking renewal of U.S. aid.
In the perpetually cloudy Middle East, Iran is a bright spot. In the country where landholders once owned whole provinces, the Shah's "white revolution" has distributed land to three out of ev ery four peasants, who later this year will vote in Iran's first elections for local and provincial councils. Another promising country is Libya, which in five years has risen from the lowly status of a backward state to the proud rank of the world's seventh largest oil producer.
In Saudi Arabia, King Feisal, in the 2½ years since he displaced his wastrel brother Saud, has put his nation's huge income from oil ($700 million last year) to work building steel plants, refineries and fertilizer plants. But Feisal confronts Nasser on the barren battle fields of Yemen. Though there is no serious shooting there at the moment, their rivalry divides the whole Arab world into shouting camps. Cyprus still simmers, and Arab still glares at Israeli.
After Castro, Some Stirrings
At first glance, it would not seem that there was much good news out of Latin America. It is still beset by the mañana complex, and in some countries, oligarchs still resist social and economic reform. But there are major trend-setting exceptions to this pattern in Peru, Chile and Venezuela, where progressive parties are increasingly powerful. In many countries, military regimes have taken over, but the new style of army officer is in many cases closer to the people than the politicians-of-privilege that they succeeded. In Brazil, for instance, army influence has meant at least the start of a turnaround from chaos to order, from corruption to responsibility.
Equally important is the collapse of Castroism. Once hailed all through Latin America as a champion of the downtrodden, Castro has ended by disillusioning all but his most fervent admirers. Today, Russia has to pump $1,000,000 a day into Cuba just to keep Castro going. In fact, Castro's expansive dreams of empire building have produced a constructive backlash. It speeded the launching of the Alliance for Progress, which has not exactly taken off in a big way but did stir some Latin regimes to take the first steps toward reform. And at long last, the Latin Americans are beginning to move toward regional collaboration and even a Latin American common market. The Central American Common Market, established in 1960, has proved a notable success, producing a threefold increase in trade volume in just five years.
Still Coups, Better Leaders