The Foreign Service Journal, March 2016

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MARCH 2016 59 countries starting in the 1830s. International visitors regularly traveled to the United States to observe the accomplishments of the self-taught engineers who constructed the Erie Canal and other infrastructure projects. The development of steamboats and railroads, and the newly invented telegraph (the Internet of its day), attracted increasing attention. By the late 1840s, Americans were already building railroads and telegraph lines in foreign lands, such as George Wash- ington Whistler in Russia and the initiation of the Panama Railroad, an engineering marvel of the era. Rapidly increasing agricultural production and the machinery of Cyrus McCormick were generating frequent requests for agricultural experts. In addition, foreigners viewed with great interest the Ameri- can public school system and recruited advisers who could replicate it overseas. They traveled here to observe new ideas about penology, care for the insane and abused women, and creation of voluntary associations. Many were intrigued by the American experiment in representative democracy and won- dered how it might be established elsewhere. By 1850, Minister George Bancroft was reporting from London that the U.S. had surpassed Britain in commerce, manufacturing and wealth. World leaders saw the U.S. as a growing center of discovery and as a provider of knowledge and techniques that would accel- erate economic and social progress. Such initiatives would further expand after the Civil War. History Matters Modern aid programs are part of a tradition that dates back to the founding of the republic. During the six decades follow- ing independence, Americans advocated international engage- ment and wrote about how it would benefit the United States and other nations. They encouraged initiatives to share with the world the fruits of the American Revolution, although trade expansion and other national interests were also fundamental concerns. While many have forgotten Henry Clay’s proposal for Western Hemisphere collaboration, his vision lived on to inspire Secretary of State James G. Blaine to help create the Inter- American System in 1890. That led, in turn, to the establish- ment of the Pan-American Union, the first modern multilateral organization for regional cooperation and development and a model for the future League of Nations, United Nations and Organiza- tion of American States. Indeed, many of the ele- ments that we recognize as modern foreign aid emerged during this period: congres- sionally appropriated funds; humanitarian assistance and food shipments for victims of conflict, famine and natural disasters; support to revolutionary regimes and new nations; technical advice for improving educa- tion, medical care and agriculture; the establishment of NGOs operating overseas; the dispatch of volunteers to foreign lands; support for industrial and infrastructure development; public- private partnerships; and promotion of democracy and what we now call “nation-building.” Such a perspective may help to explain how President George W. Bush could enter office opposed to overseas nation-building, yet subsequently embark on the most ambitious such efforts in American history in Iraq and Afghanistan while achieving the largest increase in foreign assistance since the Marshall Plan. Or why President Barack Obama, in his Second Inaugural Address in January 2013, echoed Thomas Jefferson in proclaiming: “We will support democracy from Asia to Africa; from the Americas to the Middle East; because our interests and our conscience compel us to act on behalf of those who long for freedom. We must be a source of hope to the poor, the sick, the marginalized, the victims of injustice. Our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth.” As Abraham Lincoln famously observed, “We cannot escape history.” Foreign assistance is not merely a temporary aber- ration or a response to immediate international crises. It has been a fundamental part of U.S. engagement with the world and defines who we are as a people. If Americans stopped trying to improve and democratize the world, they would stop being American. n The USAID logo we know today bears a distinct resemblance to the Jefferson Peace Medal, as shown here. Peace and friendship medals minted in silver by the U.S. government were an aspect of diplomacy with Native Americans and others during the 18th and 19th centuries. JEFFERSONPEACEMEDAL/OREGONHISTORICALSOCIETY