Truman's Point Four
Strange, Susan. “Truman’s Point Four.” In Year Book of World Affairs 1950, edited by George W. Keeton, Georg Schwarzenberger, 264-288. London: Stevens, 1950.
Strange discusses Truman’s fourth declared guiding rule of American foreign policy for the years 1949-1953, that ‘Our aim should be to help the free peoples of the world, through their own efforts to produce more clothing, more materials for housing and more mechanical power to lighten their burdens’, stressing the technical and international nature of future assistance. She notes that American ‘internationalism’ could be broken under the stresses of changing political and strategic circumstances. While the US needs to remain embedded within the international economy, the costs of technical co-operation are largely borne by the targeted Third World countries themselves. Strange points to the linkage between economics and politics, as a way of highlighting questions concerning the degree of freedom to use funds as recipients of US controlled aid and loans wish.
Keywords: Hegemony; United States; US Foreign Policy; International Relations