ABSTRACT
Japan’s economic progress would depend greatly on expanded exports of industrial goods and imports of regional resources. Washington had started looking at Southeast Asia, and especially resource-rich Indonesia, as a good market for Japanese trade. Assistance would be in the form of economic programs and technical support that would strengthen the non-communist governments in Southeast Asia. Harry S. Truman’s Point IV Program was to operate in conjunction with other countries to provide technical assistance and economic development for ‘economically undeveloped’ areas. The first progress report on the implementation of National Security Council 48/2 revealed that efforts were being made to organise a mission to visit Southeast Asian countries to encourage initiatives for economic development and to ensure that Point IV-type activities would be pursued. The Southeast Asia Aid Policy Committee convened for the first time in July 1950 with the committee’s purpose to be responsible for the coordination of general policy for United States political–military–economic aid to Southeast Asia.
