III. Evolution of the Program to Develop the Region of the 



Lower Mekong Basin 



When President Johnson made the offer to contribute greatly to the 

 Mekong program in 1965, the Lower Basin development work had 

 already been underway for about eight years with some modest U.S. 

 participation. The basis for international cooperation on such projects 

 went back a decade earlier than that. In his 1946 study of the United 

 Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), Herman Finer 

 wrote : 



The Council will encourage or institute regional conferences on economic, 

 social, and humanitarian problems. The authority for this does not and need not 

 appear directly in the Charter, for this is a matter of instruments not principles. 

 It is always a little discomforting to suggest regional differentiation in economic, 

 social, and humanitarian matters, because it is difficult to define a region, and 

 unpleasant to think that separate areas might pursue competitive or hostile 

 policies. But what is meant is roughly this. Some countries by reason of their 

 proximity and certain common characteristics of geography and climate and lo- 

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



He added : "The word 'regional' is not used here, and certainly ought 

 never to be used, in the sense of a unified economic area marked off 

 from the rest of the world and properly pursuing its own self-suffi- 

 cient interests." 18 He recalled that in the International Labor Con- 

 ference of May 1933, representatives of China and India had proposed 

 that a Far Eastern Regional Conference should be called, and sug- 

 gested that "No doubt the Economic and Social Council could foster 

 such special regional bodies . . . . v Specifically. Article 68 of the charter 

 of ECOSOC authorized it to "set up commissions in economic and 

 social fields and for the promotion of human rights and such other 

 commissions as may be required for the performance of its functions." 



Adoption of the Regionalism Principle into the United Nations System 

 Cinder its charter, ECOSOC created an Economic Commission for 

 Asia and the Far East (ECAFE) on March 28, 1947. Its headquarters 

 were located in Bangkok, Thailand. Its scope extended to trade, agri- 

 culture, 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. 

 England, The Netherlands, the United States and the Soviet Union. 19 

 (Other regional commissions have been established by ECOSOC for 

 Europe | ECE), for Latin America | ECLA),and for Africa (ECA).) 

 An early action by ECAFE was the organization of a series of con- 

 ferences on water resources, a subject to which the Commission gave 

 priority attention. In support of this activity, and to provide consulta- 



18 Herman Finer, Tin United Nations Economic and Social Council (Boston Mass : 

 World Peace F idatlon, 1940), pp. 107 108. 



'•China (Taiwan) withdrew fron mbersliip In anticipation of expulsion from the 



United Nations, and the People's Republic ol China lias indicated the Intention i<> join 

 both ECOSOC a ICAFE 



(380) 



