The Foreign Service Journal, November 2021

32 NOVEMBER 2021 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL top-down macro-economic reforms and public administra- tion in key partner countries. The United States was virtually alone as a major bilateral donor, and private capital flows to the developing world were quite low, giving Washington dis- proportionate influence and impact as developing countries found themselves sometimes squeezed by the harsh realities of Cold War geopolitics. The Green Revolution and the advent of international family planning programs stand as some of the most important legacies of the era. Unfortunately, much of the agency’s good work during this period was overshad- owed by the specter of Vietnam and mounting public frus- tration that U.S. blood and treasure seemed to be wasted in Southeast Asia. During the Nixon administra- tion, USAID veered on a sharply different course. Discontent with the aid program was high, because of both Vietnam and the rise of a series of U.S.-backed military governments in Latin America. Congress passed the “New Directions” legislation that pushed USAID to focus much more on the needs of the poorest of the poor and rural development. The agency took on a sector-driven approach to pro- ducing results in health, educa- tion and livelihoods at the village level through a panoply of U.S. NGOs and contractors. New Directions helped stave off those who advocated eliminating the agency, but without a focus on economic reforms, USAID would have a difficult time replicat- ing the early successes of Taiwan and South Korea. The Reagan administration marked the next important watershed. The foreign aid budget climbed sharply, again driven by Cold War politics, and the agency made a huge push on the health front, becoming the global leader in child survival programs. These programs have always been popular on the Hill and with the public, and health and humanitarian assis- tance programs over time have come to dominate the agency’s budget and worldview. By the first Bush administration, USAID had entered into a period of considerable scandal and low morale. The fall of the Berlin Wall triggered a major push by the agency into Central and Eastern Europe. The Clinton administration brought a knockdown fight with both Congress and the State Department as Senator Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) led the fight to fold the agency into the State Department. The protracted battle brought steep budget cuts, even as the agency pursued ambitious reforms, and increas- ingly focused on such issues as women and the environment that had in the past often been an afterthought. By the beginning of the George W. Bush administration, USAID was a shadow of its former self, deeply wounded by the fights of the previous decade. The aftermath of September 11 brought huge infusions of resources and personnel, new turf battles with the State Department, and complicated missions in Iraq and Afghanistan that often echoed the Vietnam experi- USAID led the international effort to combat the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014. USAID/MORGANAWINGARD USAID staff welcome another shipment of U.S.-donated COVID-19 vaccine deliveries to Uganda in the summer of 2021. USAID