POINT : FOUR ,PROGRAM85


  Note added later: Appropriation in omnibus bill passed Septem..
  ber 1950. Senate Committee cut to $10 million and reversed itself.
  Finally approved at $34,500,000.12

  This was the general appropriation act for FY 1951, dated September 6,
1950;
  64 Stat. 595.


                           Editorial Note
        Aundamentalorganizational problem beset the Point IV program
 from the beginning. Within the Department of State there was un-
 certainty as-to -the focus of authority and responsibility, affecting
 relationships between the "General Manager" and the regional
 bureaus. Another Washington problem-was the question of the appro-
 priate role of the other government agenciesparticipating in the pro-
 gram,: the Departments of Agriculture ,and Commerce, the Public
 Health Service, etc. Under the original plan, these agencies were
 actually delegated responsibilities for particular functional segments
 of the program-agriculture, health education; they were to be alloted
 funds, to recruit personnel and to send them to the field, to administer
 projects, and to receive reports. Also tat the Washington level was the
 question of the position of the Institute of Inter-American Affairs
 (the IIAA), a government corporation which for more than 10 years
 had successfully administered a technical assistance program in Latin
 America.
   Abroad, there was the problem of field relationships, between the
 diplomatic mission, the technicians, and the administrators. In Latin
 America there.was' again the IIAA, already operating a going and
 successful program. In other areas of the world the organizational
 problem merged with the problem of the character land scope of the
 Point IV program. The Point IV program was (according to the
 enabling statute) "to aid the efforts of the peoples of economically
 underdeveloped areas to develop their resources and improve their
 working and living conditions by encouraging the exchange of tech-
 nical knowledge and skills and the flow of investment of capital to
 countries which provide conditions under which such technical assist-
 ance and capital can effectively and constructively contribute to rais-
 ing standards of living, creating new sources of wealth, increasing
 productivity and expanding purchasing power ... " (64 Stat. 198,
 Title IV, sec. 403 (a)) Was this concept to be applied restrictively or
broadly? What was its relation to the totality of current national
security objectives? More specifically, what was to be the relationship
between Point IV programs and other United States foreign economic


$51