I used to know a woman who was doing a diss at The New School (don't know what's happened to her now) on how the US government had to prod companies to invest abroad in the 1950s - they wanted to get the dollars overseas, so they'd come back here as demand for our exports. The firms were reluctant at first. Apparently capital often needs a kick in the ass from the state to do what it needs to. Doug <<<<<>>>>>
eisenhower's *internationalism* was source of great consternation for isolationist robert taft-led wing of republican party (right-wing had tried to scuttle ike's nomination right through the '52 nominating convention; his frustration with them led him to consider forming a centrist party for '56 re-election effort)...
re. economic foreign policy, eisenhower consistently rejected proposals from some of his own advisers for development as well as humanitarian aid to the third world, instead, he pursued stimulation of foreign investment and trade...
such stimulation was actually behind his support of certain 'aid packages', for example, the sale of grain surplus to third world countries at reduced prices and in return for local, often unconvertible currencies (his administration pushed and pushed and pushed for convertability), but his support for such *assistance* was motivated by desire to *cultivate* economic sector - in this case, farmer - support for his administration and to *develop* foreign markets for u.s. products...
ike did, late in his second term, work to create two loan programs - the development loan fund (dlf) & the inter-american development bank (iadb), however, dlf funds were so small that they didn't even increase u.s. *aid* to the third world while the iadb provided little help to the poor of latin america and the caribbean (plus the u.s used its weighted voting power in bank policies to limit/prevent loans to countries not militarily aligned with the u.s.), eisenhower's support in both instances was facilitation of markets for u.s. products (loans have rarely ever been helpful to the masses)... mh
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