397 



various aspects of "rural economic development," and electrical serv- 

 ices to rural communities to "insure that the benefits of industrial 

 diversifiation are available in rural areas." 37 



Perhaps the most comprehensive regional development measure in 

 the Johnson domestic program was the Public Works and Economic 

 Development Act of 1965. This too had its inception in a Kennedy pro- 

 gram, signalized by the Area Redevelopment Act of May 1, 1961. The 

 earlier act had included provisions for regional loans, public facility 

 loans and grants, technical assistance, and training programs. Expe- 

 rience gained with this measure led President Johnson, on March 25, 

 1965, to ask Congress for an enlarged authority to undertake extensive 

 application of the regionalism principle in the United States. He said : 



A key feature of this new program is the proposal to group together dis- 

 tressed counties and communities in economically viable development districts. 

 Planning and assistance will concentrate on the needs of the area as a whole. . . . 

 It makes sense to work in terms of larger regions encompassing in some cases 

 parts of two or more states. 



This is merely the recognition of a simple fact. Neither distress nor the poten- 

 tial for development respects state, county, or community boundaries. 88 



Out of this measure was developed an extensive system of regional de- 

 velopment commissions — coordinated by an Economic Development 

 Administration in the Department of Commerce. These were primarily 

 State-organized regional commissions dealing with mutual problems 

 in such regions as the Four Corners area, the Great Lakes, New Eng- 

 land, and the Ozarks. The Appalachian Commission maintained a 

 separate but parallel program. 



On the same day as he submitted his Special Message on Regional 

 Development, the President also declared that the United States hoped 

 for a time when people and governments in Southeast Asia would need 

 not military support but only economic and social cooperation for 

 progress in peace. 



Even now [he went on], in Vietnam and elsewhere, there are major programs 

 of development which have the cooperation and support of the United States. 

 Wider and bolder programs can be expected in the future from Asian leaders and 

 Asian councils — and in such programs we would want to help. This is the proper 

 business of our future cooperation. 88 



It should be recalled that the Johnson proposal of April 7, 1965, was 

 deliberately vague as to whether it addressed the U.S. posture toward 

 the entire Southeast Asian region after cessation of hostilities, or 

 whether it was a move to end the hostilities in Vietnam. One source of. 

 the uncertainty was the question as to how long the combined efforts 

 of the Vietcong and North Vietnamese forces could continue to exert 

 military pressure against South Vietnam as U.S. military assistance 

 was poured increasingly into the balance. Apparently White House 

 advisers foresaw a negotiated settlement soon, or a collapse of North 

 Vietnam in no more than four years or so. The President's Mekong 

 proposal, in short, was a concept of postwar reconstruction that he 



87 "Special Message to the Congress on Agriculture, February 1965. Public Papers of the 

 President of the United States (Washington, D.C. : U.S. Government Printing Office, 1966), 

 p. 142. 



38 "Special Message to the Congress on Area and Regional Economic Development." 

 March 1965, Public Papers of the President of the United States (Washington, D.C. : U.S. 

 Government Printing Office, 1966), p. 323. 



89 "Special Message to the Congress on Regional and Economic Development," Ibid., p. 319. 



