The Foreign Service Journal, March 2017

12 MARCH 2017 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL the test. I thank Mr. Lawson for sharing his story with the rest of the Foreign Service. Ben J. Marin IMTS/T U.S. Embassy Yerevan Two Kinds of History The October Foreign Service Jour- nal carried a story by Ruchir Joshi, a major opinion maker in India (novelist, filmmaker and columnist), describing India’s view of the U.S. election (“How India Sees U.S. Elec- tions”). It contained this state- ment: “Democrat or not, Lyndon Johnson was viewed as a mixed bag. The P.L. 480 Food for Peace program received a huge fillip from Kennedy, with Johnson carrying it forward, and the aid received by India in the 1960s was acknowledged with gratitude. At the same time, it was U.S.-donated Patton tanks and Sabre fighter jets that our military faced in the 1965 war with Pakistan.” There, in one sentence, was what India remembers about the massive economic assistance we rendered in the 1960s, which led to the Green Revolu- tion and Indian agricultural self-suffi- ciency, the avoidance of massive starva- tion during the Bihar famine, and a huge flow of capital and technical assistance to support industrial development. I was reminded of the statement that there are two kinds of history: “dead his- tory” and “living history.” Dead history is what is contained in the museums and libraries. Living history is what people believe happened. Then I looked at what the USAID website says about aid to India during that period. Here is the entire substan- tive portion of the statement covering 1951 to 1980: “USAID’s program has evolved pro- gressively over the decades from emer- gency provision of food to infrastructure development, capacity building of key Indian institutions, support for the opening of the Indian economy and more. ... In 1960, food aid accounted for 92 percent of the annual assistance bud- get. In the late 1970s, projects included rural electrification, fertilizer promo- tion, malaria control, agri- cultural credit, integrated health and population pro- grams, irrigation schemes and social forestry” (www. usaid.gov/india/history). Well, if that is the best face our own government can put on those massive efforts, how can I blame Mr. Joshi? In my book , Memoirs of an Agent for Change in International Development , published two years ago, a speech I delivered in Kanpur in August 1966 is included (Annex 3). It describes, in bare outline, the then-current aid program for the year which, in 1966 dol- lars, came to about $800 million. Surely some of those efforts deserve recogni- tion by the agency I served, if not by the Indian public. Ludwig Rudel FS Reserve-2, retired Bethesda, Maryland The Dangers of Senate No. 11 The controversy developing over the pending bill, Senate No. 11, “Jerusalem Embassy and Recognition Act,” reprises an almost annual joust that centers on relocating the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. Take AFSA With You! Change your address online, visit us at www.afsa.org/ address Or Send changes to: AFSAMembership Department 2101 E Street NW Washington, DC 20037 Moving?