Development as a tool of diplomacy: The domestic models for United States policy in the Jordan River Valley, 1939--1956

During the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953--1961), development became an essential part of the strategic vision of containment in the Middle East. In 1953, Eisenhower attempted to use a plan created by the Tennessee Valley Authority and the United Nations called "Unified Development of the Jordan River Valley" to induce political accommodation between the Arab States and Israel and resettle the Palestinian refugees. In doing so, he hoped to prevent conditions in the region that could work for the benefit of the Soviet Union. Eisenhower sent Eric Johnston to the region to negotiate agreement on the plan for regional integrated water development. The origins of this approach drew upon an American faith in the democratizing force of development which dated back to the 1930s and which was drawn largely from U.S. domestic experiences.; The expansion of settlement in the and western United States and the accompanying displacement of American Indians, and the creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority created a momentum for the manipulation of the natural and human environment to encourage economic growth. At the same time, they promoted the belief that the resulting improvements also brought with them democracy and modernization. A cadre of engineers who became politicians and diplomats took these lessons and applied them to the international arena in the 1940s. Walter Clay Lowdermilk and Gordon Clapp in particular were influential in transferring the lessons of western water development and the TVA to Palestine and the Jordan River. Their vision of human progress and political and natural change shaped the American approach to the Palestinian Crisis and the Arab-Israeli conflict in the 1940s and early 1950s. A shift in the perception of the nature of the problem in the Middle East in the mid- to late-1950s, and the loss of Gamel Abdul Nasser's support for the Jordan River project, led the United States to abandon development as its primary tool in the region in favor of greater emphasis on regional defense.