RUSSIA: Challenge in Giving

Since the fateful June day in 1947, when General George Marshall, U.S. Secretary of State, rekindled Europe's war-deadened spirits with his promise of massive infusions of U.S. financial help, economic aid has been one of the most effective instruments of U.S. foreign policy. But at Cairo's Afro-Asian Conference last week (see below), Soviet representatives were gleefully hammering away at a new theme: "The capitalists no longer have a monopoly of credit and machinery. The Socialist countries are really giving!"

By hindsight, experts date Russia's economic aid program from 1953. At that time, the...