FOREIGN RELATIONS: Dollars to Asia

Nine nations—Cambodia, Nationalist China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Laos, the Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam—got $767 million in U.S. economic and technical assistance in fiscal 1956, the International Corporation Administration reported last week. South Korea, which maintains 20 army divisions, got the biggest slice: $327 million.

The figures underscored a dramatic eastward shift of U.S. economic attention. In 1953 Europe got 66% of the nonmilitary aid and Far Eastern nations only 12%. In fiscal 1956, Asians received a whopping 58%. Non-Communist Europe, with its technical and economic houses clearly more in order, was down to 8%.