Dennis Merrill examines the origins and implementation of U.S.
economic assistance programs in India from independence in 1947 to
the height of John F. Kennedy's "development decade" in 1963. As
the Cold War spread to the Third World in the late 1940s and 1950s,
American policymakers tried to use economic aid to draw neutral
India into the Western camp. Citing the country as the "world's
largest democracy," the Americans hoped to establish India as a
showcase for American–sponsored development and a
counterweight to the Communist model in the People's Republic of
China.
By the early 1960s, India has become one of the Third World's
leading recipients of American economic assistance. Yet, as Merrill
demonstrates, India remained dedicated to a nonaligned status, and
Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's frequent criticism of U.S.
foreign policy tried the patience of Cold War strategists. Even in
the area of economic policy, the two nations differed on a wide
variety of developmental issues. Thus, argues Merrill, the Indian
case offers a keen vantage point from which to explores modern
American foreign policy and the complexities of the foreign aid
process.
Bread and the Ballot is one of the first studies of U.S.
attitudes toward Third World development in the decades following
World War II to be based largely on recently declassified
government documents. Merrill's study draws on materials from the
Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and John F. Kennedy
presidential libraries, U.S. State Department records, and the
papers of Chester Bowles, who served as ambassador to India under
both Truman and Kennedy. In addition, Merrill's extensive research
in Britain and Indian public records gives this work a
multinational perspective.
Originally published in 1990.
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