Chile: the balanced view : a recopilation of articles about the Allende years and after

the present government doing? 4) What are the prospects for U.S. relations with Chile? Throughout I will emphasize the U.S. interest in regional stability and the continuity of U.S. policy toward Latin America. What is the Basis of U.S. Po/icy Toward Latín America? Many of the present tensions wilh our neighbors to the soulh are rooled in an earlier attitude of arrogance which sometimes led to indirect intervention in their internal affairs. Fortunately, this overbearing attitude and the policies associated wilh it are giving way to a greater respect for the ríght of the sovereign Latín American states to do things in their own way and at theír own pace. Our official arrogance probably reached its high point in the early 1960s when various U.S. aid programs, conspicuously development assistance and Food for Peace, attached certaín conditions that amounted to interference in internal affaírs. We said, in effect, we wi II provide this aid if you restructure certain of your poi ilical or economic institulions in accord with our preferences. This was deeply resented. No government or society likes outsiders lo meddle in its domestic affairs, especially sensitive matters that relate to the distribution of economic resources or political power. . An embarrassing example of this crusading approach is Title IX (Section 281) of the Foreign Assistance Act. It was adopted in 1967 to insure that U.S. economic aid would be used to build, strengthen, and utilize "democratic institutions" in the assisted countries. Ir states that all U.S. programs shall ':use the intellectual resources of such countries" so as "to encourage the development 6f indigenous institutions that meet their particular requi– rements for sustained economic and social progress" and shall "support civic educaHon and training skills required for effective participation in governmental and political proces– ses essential to selt-government." Further, "emphasis shall be given to research designed to examine the political, social, and related obstacles to development in countríes recei– víng assistance," so as to better use such aid to "support democratic social and political trends."(1) And who would determine if the recipient government made sufficient internal reforms to meet the requirements of Title IX? U.S. officials, of course. Title IX may have had little negative ettect, because it was largely ignored by AID officials in Washington and the field, but me attempt to use U.S. assistance to force internal reform has been expressed elsewhere by members of Congress. On several occasions, the administration has been urged by Congressmen to suspend or terminate economic or military aid to a regime because Ihe Congressmen opposed ils character or internal policies. A House subcommiltee report issued earlier this year asserted that the United States should take various measures to help force change in specified internal policies of "frien– dly, neutral, or unfriendly regimes."(2) These measures are to include the "withdrawal of military assistance and sales" and of "certain economic assistance programs." The inter– nal policies that warranted such dramatic action, include what the report calls "serious violations of human rights," again to be defined by !,J.S. officials. The strong dissent by three subcommittee members from the House report and the failure of the Committee on Foreign Affairs to endorse it suggest that its recommendatíons that U.S. aid be used as a weapon for internal reform are not oroadly shared on Capitol Hi 11. Nevertneless, such views have been expressed often enough to nave prompted high-Ievel statements against them. During his visít to Romanía in August 1969, President Nixon said: "We seek normal relations with all countries; regardless of their domestic system." Spea– king of Latín America, he saíd every state "must betrue to its own character," and criticized (1)House Committee on Foreign Alfairs and Senale Committee on Foreign Relalions. Legislation On Foreígn Relalions (Washington, Ju/y J972), pp. 31·32. (2)Hollse, SlIbcommiUee on Inlernalional Organizalions and Movemenls, CommiUee on Foreign Relatíons, Human RighlS in the World Commllníly: A Call for U.S. Leadership (Washington, March 27, 1974), p, 3, Three subcommíttee members dissented strongly Irom certain conclusions 01 the report 272