1560 



East (ECAFE) and the cooperation of a large number of U.N. agencies, 

 foundations, and individual countries. 



As a peace initiative the President's offer failed; Hanoi and Peking 

 emphatically rejected it. In retrospect it is seen as merely a brief 

 episode of the eventful period, characterized b}^ mounting opposition 

 to the Vietnam War that culminated in the Pr-esident's decision not to 

 seek reelection in 1968. Nevertheless, it called attention to the poten- 

 tialities of the Mekong project, both in itself and as a model, and of 

 regionalism as an approach to development. 



Importance of the Case 



What emerges from this study as significant is not the President's 

 proposal, dramatic though it was at the time, but the hardiness of the 

 Mekong project and the regional approach: 



". . . throughout the 7 years from the time of the speech to the present (May 

 1972), the international effort to apply technology to the systematic development 

 of the Lower Mekong Basin has grown considerably. . . . Despite many strains, 

 cooperation among the four countries of the Basin held steadfast. . . . As a multi- 

 national development effort it has demonstrated 14 years of continuity, stability, 

 and growth." »" 



How the Case Developed 



In a 1946 study of the United Nations Economic and Social Council 

 (ECOSOC), Herman Finer wrote that— 



"The Council will encourage or institute regional conferences on economic, 

 social, and humanitarian problems. . . . Some countries by reason of their prox- 

 imity and certain common characteristics of geography and climate and location 

 or the chance of history, have some problems in common. 



Under its charter, ECOSOC on March 28, 1947, created an Eco- 

 nomic Commission for Asia and the Far East (ECAFE), with head- 

 quarters in Bangkok, Thailand. ECAFE's scope extended to trade, 

 agriculture, transportation, industrial and technological development, 

 education, and data gathering. Its membership included all members of 

 the United Nations in Asia plus Australia, New Zealand, France, the 

 United Kingdom, the Netherlands, the United States, and the Soviet 

 Union. (Other regional commissions have been established bv 

 ECOSOC: for Europe— ECE; Latin America— ECLA; and Africa— 

 ECA.) «i 



In 1957 the four Riparian Nations (Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and 

 Vietnam), in association with ECAFE, established a permanent Com- 

 mittee for Coordination of Investigations of the Lower Mekong. The 

 four members of the coordination committee representing the Riparian 

 Nations had full powers of decision; an executive agent, heading a 

 permanent advisory board of professional engineers created in 1958, 

 had authority for making day-to-day decisions in preparing requests 

 for technical and financial assistance, program planning and super- 

 vision, and staff support of the coordination committee. 



M U.S. Congres<5, IIoiiso, rnmniittpp on Foreign Affairs, The M(kmig Project: Opportitnilkf and Prohhm.i 

 of Reqionalism, a sliidy in the series on Science, Teclinolopy, and American Diplomacy, prerared for the 

 Subcommittee on National Security Policy and Scientific Developments by Frai'klin P. Ihiddle. Science 

 Policy Research Division, Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress. Wasliinglon, D.C., U.S. 

 Government Printing Oflice, May 1972. See vol. I, pp. 361-4.S4. The quotation is from page ,371. For a men- 

 tion of how the Meliong project has survived the turl)ulent years since, the above lines were written, see 

 below undn' Antlior's lieassissincnt. 



«' Huddle, The Mekong Project, vol. I, p. 380. 



