431 



past — at least in Laos and Vietnam — the familiar contemporary panacea of aid 

 had provided no answers. What seems absolutely basic is a massive, well-inte- 

 grated, area-wide, peacetime program in which the riparian nations themselves 

 can swiftly build up experience and competence in modern development and ad- 

 ministration. Whether the Mekong Project is really appropriate or adequate to the 

 need remains to be proved, but it is certainly the most promising scheme which 

 has yet been proposed. The $10 billion project — to which two years ago President 

 Johnson pledged $1 billion, once peaceful regional development became possible — 

 would seem from almost any point of view a much better investment than $1 bil- 

 lion per annum in an endless Vietnam War. 104 



It is sheer speculation that a U.S. -encouraged regional development 

 of the Lower Mekong Basin in 1954 might have provided a focus for 

 peaceful economic progress, served as an educational process, and es- 

 tablished a base for wider cooperation in that disrupted region. How- 

 ever, the question seems legitimate as to whether the consequences of 

 a slowly and deliberately encouraged regional development — region 

 by region — in lagging parts of the world might serve U.S. foreign 

 policy objectives in the long run. The concept of dealing with multi- 

 national geographic regions rather than with nations, and extending 

 aid from a multinational base instead of bilaterally, has been credited 

 in the literature with a number of attractive characteristics : 



Emphasis is on local participation in development and planning ; 



Subregions in greatest need and offering greatest opportunity for advance- 

 ment tend to receive priority by local consent ; 



Nationalistic preoccupations appear to be moderated ; 



Self-help is encouraged and stimulated by being made more effective in 

 combined actions with mutual support ; 



National sensitivities that bilateral aid would exacerbate are less abraded 

 by multinational arrangements ; 



Regional cohesiveness — the tendency for people of different countries work- 

 ing together on a shared problem to lay aside their national differences — 

 can result from attention to geographic regional goals rather than formal 

 national boundaries ; 



Burdens of foreign aid tend to be more widely distributed ; and 



The process of applying technological means to social and economic objec- 

 tives can be made coherent and understandable to those who expect to enjoy 

 the benefits. 



The resultant alignment of nations and international structures 

 from a deliberate program of world regionalism acceptable to de- 

 veloped and developing countries might warrant further study and 

 analysis. What actions could help to encourage a world system of eco- 

 nomically and technologically better balanced regions? Would there 

 be any effect on the levels of international tensions, either in the re- 

 gions or in the relations among the major powers? Might regional vot- 

 ing in the United Nations General Assembly and the associated U.N. 

 agencies provide a better or more representative arrangement than the 

 present, admittedly awkward system of one-country-one-vote? 



The implication of the Hanna observation, and other like writings, 

 is that the cost-effectiveness of regional development projects is not 

 fully measurable in economic terms alone. If an economically marginal 

 project advances a diplomatic goal — stabilizes a region, inspires inter- 

 national cooperation, ameliorates tensions, provides a peaceful alterna- 



101 Willard A. Hanna, "The Mekong Project." Part I, "The River and the Region," Amer- 

 ican Universities Field Staff Reports (July 1968), p. 10. 



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