839 



is even scarcer in the LDCs. The governments of those countries are 

 often fragile and afraid to tackle problems that would upset internal 

 equilibrium, which development so often does. This is one reason why 

 development lags in some areas. The governments may substitute 

 talk for action, or they may draw up elaborate development plans but 

 fail to carry them out. Such ploys are hardly the exclusive character- 

 istic of bureaucracy in the LDCs, but agam, their negative impact 

 may be greater than similar tactics in the developed countries. 



Over the years the United States has devoted a good deal of aid 

 money to training in public administration. The effective implemen- 

 tation of family planning programs is likely to strain further the al- 

 ready slender administrative resources of the LDCs. One consequence 

 may be an even greater emphasis on public administration training 

 in the U.S. aid program. Programs may be devised which are devoted 

 exclusively to preparing trainees to administer family planning and 

 birth control programs. Yet administrative and technical training 

 cannot instill the ability to step smartly through political thickets. 

 Thus the most effective administrators of family limitation programs 

 in the LDCs will be individuals who are not only trained in the tech- 

 niques of administration, but who are adept in using the political 

 system in their own countries to generate popular and governmental 

 support for achieving the program's objectives. 



U.S. Diplomatic Mohilization to Deal loith the Population Issue 



The delicacy of the task facing American diplomacy with respect 

 to family planning activities in the LDCs exceeds tmt required in 

 the case of the Green Revolution. U.S. missions can show how un- 

 checked population growth is hurting development. They can also 

 inform officials in developing countries of the types of assistance relat- 

 ing to family planning they can receive under the U.S. foreign aid 

 program; as well as of resources available from the private sector 

 and international agencies. U.S. mission personnel themselves need to 

 be apprised of the latest developments in research on fertility control, 

 so they can pass this information on to the countries in which they 

 are stationed. These functions would seem to be essentially a^ matter 

 of maintaining good liaison between the appropriate officials in AID 

 and the State Department, and between Washington and the fidd. 

 While they can offer advice, if requested, it would seem essential that 

 U.S. diplomatic personnel leave the choice of a birth control or family 

 planning strategy to the host government. 



EVOLUTION or U.S. CONCERN 



Toward the end of the 1950s the United States began to become 

 aware of what has been called the "developmental equation" — viz., 

 available resources divided by number of people equals degree of well- 

 being. Development planners had long been aware, of course, that 

 improved health and sanitation resulting from U.S. technical aspi st- 

 ance would cut down the death rate and thus increase the population. 

 At the same time, there were innumerable complaints that U.S. aid 

 was inefficiently administered, and that it was not bringing results 

 commensurate with the financial drain it imposed. A presidential 

 committee headed by General William H. Draper was appointed to 



