Research On American Food Aid Policy In The 1950s And 1960s

The cold war between the America and the Soviet Union for struggling thehegemony of the world started at the20century1950s to1960s, under thisinternational background, the food aid plan that was carried out by the America wasserviced for the cold war. Foreign aid is an important tool of diplomatic activity in theUnited States.From the beginning of the food aid policy, the foreign aid policy of U.S.has entered into a new stage of development.This article started from the politics, economy and the foreign affairs’perspective, which expounded systematically the whole process of the AgriculturalTrade Development and Assistance Act in1954(Public Law480) and the furtherimprove of the law in Kennedy-Johnson government. This revealed the developing ofthe change about the food aid policy, from the disposal of surplus agriculturalproducts to play a diplomatic role of food aid. Through analyzing the background ofthis times food aid policy, we realized that this food aid policy was very necessaryand urgency for America in this period. According this, we can analyze thecharacteristics and the impact of food aid policy, base on this we can provide ahistorical reference for today’s world food crisis.This paper is divided into four parts:The first part is prologue part, which is mainly to introduce briefly about thedomestic and foreign scholars’ research dynamic, and illustrates the topics reasons,the research significance and methods and the innovate points.The second part is analysis of the background of the food aid policy, and it has abrief introduction to the food policy, which was used before1950. By this way thereaders can understand the background of this food aid policy better.The third part analyzes the main content of the U.S. food aid policy in thisperiod, have a detailed analysis of Public Law480and the further improve inKennedy-Johnson Administration government. It becomes a theoretical basis of theU.S. food diplomacy. Through the implementation of the policy, we can summarizethe characteristics of the food aid policy in this period, so we can have a conclusion: the formulation and implementation of U.S. foreign policy must meet its politicalinterests.The last part of the paper from U.S. and the recipient country, we can analyzethe impact of the food aid policy in this period. To America, it enhances theinternational status of the United States, to beautify the image of the United States, todeal with the domestic agricultural crisis successfully, also to enrich the connotationof foreign policy. From the recipient country, U.S. food aid will alleviate the socialcrisis of the recipient country, but actually the recipient country always sells its ownpolitical interests in exchange. In this way, the food aid policy becomes the tool ofcontaining the Soviet Union, the tool of establishing the U.S. world hegemony.