ABSTRACT
This chapter examines President Harry S Truman's policy toward the Near East during the last years of his administration. It focuses on the creation, in late 1951, of a regional office based in Beirut. Its mandate was to coordinate US economic policy in the region including capital assistance from the Mutual Security Program (MSP), refugee assistance channeled through the United Nations Relief and Works Administration (UNRWA), and technical assistance from the Technical Cooperation Administration (TCA), commonly known as Point Four. The Locke mission emerges as a link between the initial launching of Economic Survey Mission (ESM) and later attempts by Eric Johnston under the Eisenhower administration to resurrect the same kind of approach. The roots of postwar US economic diplomacy in the Near East are found in the wartime participation of the United States in the Middle East Supply Centre (MESC). US economic policy in Near East would be based on bilateralism with an emphasis on the private sector.
