A Historical Investigation Of American International Population Policy (1965-1984)

Setting the American international population policy as the research topic,the thesis aims to make an exploration of the development and evolution process of the policy through combing decrypt documents and corresponding second-hand documents so as to unfold the spiritual connotation and characteristics of the policy.The time span of the thesis is from 1965 when President Lyndon Johnson put forward the control path to curb the over-rapid population growth in underdeveloped countries to 1984 when America pivoted towards the economic revolution at the expense of international population control.In American history,in terms of population issues,the comparison between the long-term lack of official policies and the active nongovernmental forces as well as the different concerns of different interest groups in American society have long restricted the policy orientation and the government‘s performance of the population issue,with laissez-faire as its main feature.Until the outbreak of the cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union at the end of the 1940 s and the intensification of their competition for less developed regions,the problem of the over-rapid growth of international population began to catch attention from the top decision-makers of American administration.In the early 1950 s,Truman administration mainly adopted the ?supply path? to increase food supply and boost economic growth.But as the extensive contention between the United States and the Soviet Union for the third world,the rapid population growth brought a threat to the assistance effectiveness and the influence of American road,then the U.S.government started thinking about population control measures to curb rapid population growth in less developed countries,but out of multiple considerations of election and government authority,President Eisenhower did not take active measures in the field of population.The ongoing pressure on the assistance effectiveness caused by the population growth prompted Kennedy and Johnson administrations to seek solutions to the problem.In 1965,President Johnson made it clear in his The State of the Union Address that the U.S.government would intervene in the rapid population growth of less developed countries through a ?new method? of population control.Since Johnson‘s The State of the Union Address,American congress had continued to press the administration through hearings and a series of legislation to employ powerful actions to handle the population growth in less developed countries.By the middle of 1966,the food shortage crisis in South Asia and the wavering attitude of the Roman Catholic Church strengthened the consensus within the U.S.government and prompted the abandonment of its conservative stance.By August 1968,the administration was not only internally coordinated,but also received generous financial support from congress and broad public support as well.Among the foreign assistance reform with international cooperation and responsibility as its core,Nixon administration established the center position of family planning in the population assistance which was put at a prior position in foreign assistance.Meanwhile,the year 1974 was designated as World Population Year,and World Population Conference was held,all of which extended the population control initiative to an international community.At the same time,Nixon administration associated population growth with national security and world peace,began to study and formulate the American international population policy,and formally established a relatively complete international population policy program in 1975.The program was dominated by American federal government on the basis of NSSM 200 and NSDM 314 and under the framework of World Population Plan of Action.It provided multiple bilateral assistance involving the provision of technology and information for family planning,the creation of advantageous conditions for a lower fertility through ?functional assistance? and food assistance,targeting at specifically 13 less developed populous country and the rural poor people.And it also supported multilateral work in the area of population to be done by private organizations,and the United Nations organizations and specialized agencies represented by the United Nations Population Fund.Meanwhile,persuading less developed countries to play its own role was achieved through diplomatic propaganda to increase the population capacity of the whole world,curtail population growth in order to deduce the fertility rate to a target number.From the policy level,the adjustment of American international population policy is elucidated,and analysis of the policy diversion made at Mexico City Conference is underscored in the thesis.After the formulation of the core policy documents,the policy entered into a new stage of implementation and supplement.However,different attitudes towards the population issues within the administrative department,the ideological transformation in population economics in the 1970 s and the rising and formation of the New Right brought pressure and thus led to both the external and internal predicaments for the policy in the early 1980 s.In the end,at the World Population Conference in 1984,the American population policy was promoted to divert into the elimination of abortion,the emphasis on economy and the neglect of population control.Through an overview of the formation process and characteristics of American international population policy,this article contends that,in terms of its motivation,the realistic consideration of cold war politics stands as an important element for the U.S.government to adopt the population control path and formulate American international population policy.During the process of policy making,historical heritage,such as demographic economic theory,religion,and private organizations,continues to play an important role,with White House and congress as its leading role.In terms of policy implementation,the sensitivity of population control makes the implementation and arrangement of the policy more furtive.In addition,population control is also an attempt of the U.S.government to conduct global governance in the field of non-traditional security.Besides being a strategic contraction at military and political levels,it is also an American strategic expansion at a different level.