'BIG PUSH' AHEAD IN THE ECONOMIC COLD WAR?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000100040033-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 17, 1999
• Sequence Number: 33
• Publication Date: January 14, 1962
• Content Type: NSPR

NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE P_ N? 41962
i Approved For Release 1999/0
FOIAb3b
~ ? `Big Push Ahead in the Economic Cold War?
A FOREIGN- POLICY FOR AMERICAN BUSINESS. By
Thomas Ai ' Jr. 159 pp. New York Harper and
Brothers
CPYRGHT By Joseph Newman
CPYRGHT
"Next the handsell." By Crawford from The Newark News
Coflin'tuiist interests are fanning the flames of na-
ona ism and seeking to overthrow the established
order on which American business and political rela-
tions are based in each and every one of the under-
developed countries. The poor countries of the world
are invited by, the Communists to help themselves to
fat American investments, just as happened with Fidel
Castro in Cuba. And the juicy profits, they are told,
Instead of going abroad to make rich Americans still
richer, would remain in the country to help the miser-
ably poor and illiterate masses.
Seductive propaganda of this kind exposes American
businessmen overseas to political and revolutionary
tides, and they cannot hope to survive then ex-tept?
by close alliance with their own government and with
the more enlightened and progressive elements in the
underdeveloped countries. The foreign policy which
both American business and government must pursue
jointly overseas is one which would demonstrate that
backward countries can advance more swiftly and
surely along the lines already tried and proven in the
United States than along the lines of violence and
regimentation offered by the Communists.
Such a policy, Mr. Aitken suggests, would be a
projection of what we have in the United States. It
would mean practicing abroad what we have been
preaching at home. Our failure to do just that may
be responsible for many of our present troubles. Until
now we have been concerned largely with securing our
markets and making our profits, closing our eyes to
Internal developments in foreign countries.
In projecting our own image of a free democratic
society, Mr. Aitken agrees with those who propose that
we dissociate ourselves as soon as possible from the
thin upper crust, the so-called oligarchy which is
regarded as the exploiting class in practically every
one of the underdeveloped countries. By working with
the oligarchies and their dictatorships, such as those
of Trujillo in the Dominican Republic and Batista
in Cuba, we became tainted through association with
them. Our problem is to recover some of the credit
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SUGGEST THIS WEEK:
based popular government.
As for the understandable desire of underdeveloped
countries to secure a greater share in the ownership
? and operation of industrial plants on their territory,
'Mr. Aitken proposes that we develop "joint-venture"
operations. The combination of American and local
capital in joint partnership, he points out, "takes the
curse" off the capitalistic "invader" from the north
and makes us, the foreigner, less vulnerable to vicious
attacks by nationalists and Communists. This would
appear to be one of the most hopeful courses of
development for the future, and the success which
the Kaiser automobile interests have had in Argentina
is proof of Its effectiveness. Mr. Aitken, having been
stationed many years in Buenos Aires as head of
McCann-Erickson's office there, has been able to wit-
ness the success of the Kaiser experiment.
Another promising suggestion would call for turning
over ah increasing number of executive positions to
nationals of the country in which an American
company is located. And Mr. Aitken would reduce
differentials in pay between American and foreign
nationals holding comparable executive positions so as
to eliminate the sense of injustice.
To give foreign nationals an opportunity to share in
various business enterprises Mr. Aitken points to the
success which IBEC, established by the Rockefeller
brothers, is having in offering mutual funds in Brazil,
Colombia, Chile and Argentina. "Here is the introduc-
tion of an erican technique," writes Mr. Aitken,
"which for the first time is showing the common
people of South American countries how to invest in
the growth of their domestic economies. . . . Public
pride in this stock ownership is great. . . . Here is
an extension of American economic democracy."
If some of the ideas advocated by Mr. Aitken and
other enlightened Americans are rapidly put into effect
in the critical areas of the world the outcome may yet
be quite different from what Khrushchev expects.
CAPTAIN NEWMAN, M. D., by Leo Rosten (Harper)
By turns comic and deeply moving, this novel (or book of related stories) tells of an
Air Force psychiatrist and his. gallant struggle on behalf of his patients mentally shat-
tered in World War H. The author is the creator of H*Y*M*A*N A *A*P*L*A*N.
Approved For Release 1999/09/17 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000100040033-4
from an army of 500,000 Americans living overseas,
they are standing,on the front lines of all battlefields
In the cold war between capitalism and communism
In the vast underdeveloped regions of the world.
They would like to pass from the defensive to the
offensive. But before they can start the "big push"
they need two things: A clear-cut policy and a closer
alliance with the American 9bvernment.
Government and business have not been on particu-
larly good terms in the past-one, representing the
state, taxing the other, dedicated to private enterprise.
Within the continental limits of the United States they
had to deal with each other. But it was a different
story in the outside world. Subject only to foreign laws,
they could devote themselves to their primary Interest
-making money-regardless of whether their pursuits
ran counter to the wishes of the American government
and the American public interest.
All this is'now changing. National boundaries are
giving way to one great boundary-the one between
the east and west. The American businessman over-
seas, whether he is in Latin America, Europe,; Africa
or Asia, finds himself inevitably being drawn into the
political, economic and social contest between the two
opposing blocs. He no longer is free to devote himself
exclusively to 'the game of making money because the
game itself has become part of a global struggle, and
the way he plays will affect the outcome.
That is the basic theme, sometimes stated, frequently
Implied, in Mr. Aitken's book, In advocating a for-
eign policy for American business, Mr. Aitken implies
that one does not now exist. And in fact it does not,
if by foreign policy one means a clearly defined
political, economic and social goal for American busi-
ness abroad and the steps for achieving It. The subject
is vast and the book small, yet Mr. Aitken has set
down some guidelines for a policy and has developed
an area of thinking which merits widespread consid-
eration In this country.
Vie original economic goal of the United States
was to develop foreign sources of cheap raw materials
for booming American industry and at the same time
to secure overseas markets for the overflow of goods
pouring off the assembly lines. The extent to which
this goal has been fulfilled would astound those early,
hardy Americans who ventured into the four corners
of the world in search \ f markets.
A new and serious threat has now arisen in the form.
of the towering tariff wall behind which the European
Common Market seeks to protect itself from outside
competition, notably from the United States. But vast
areas of growth are -still available in the under-
developed continents of Africa, Asia and South
America-the very regions where we are being chal-
lenged by the Communists.
According to figures cited by Mr. Aitken, between
4,000,000 and 5,000,000 are employed in the United
States turning out goods for export abroad. Another
15,000,000 are engaged in working on raw materials
imported from abroad. These figures alone indicate
the extent to which the people of the United States
have become involved in foreign markets.
The raising of tariff barriers by underdeveloped
countries anxious to industrialize themselves; the
lower costs of production abroad; the lower taxes and
the higher profits all combined to pull massive chunks
of American capital overseas. The size of direct
American investment abroad now exceeds $29,735,-
000,000, $8,218,000,000 of it in Latin America.
These Investments, together with export sales, have
now become a primary source of foreign earnings-
earnings required by the American government to help
meet the heavy commitments we have assumed in
military and economic aid abroad. For example as
much as 78 per cent of the profits reported by H. J.
Heinz came from foreign operations, according to Mr.
Aitken. In the case of Chas. Pfizer, pharmaceuticals,
the figure exceeded 50 per cent, and in the case of
Caterpillar Tractor it was 35 per cent.
Encouraged by Russia and Communist China, local