ABSTRACT
An important consideration for US foreign policy has been that it should be constructive. The American people clearly support policies which enhance international wellbeing and, wherever possible, alleviate human suffering. The possibility that high fertility is linked to policies which dispel a sense of limits heightens one's interest in the demographic transition model. Specifically, modernization, land redistribution, education, industrialization, and reduction in child mortality have been pursued in part because of the belief that these developments will bring down fertility. Socioeconomic development, including rising literacy and reduced child mortality, was expected to trigger the transition from large family to small family size. Change in child mortality is another sign of the times. Falling infant mortality is a joyous trend and one wishes that achieving it would lower fertility. In China after 1980, liberalization of the economy including privatization of farming brought prosperity to ordinary people and, by 1984, fertility had risen to 2.4 children per woman.
