ABSTRACT
Congressional leaders in the 1950s, especially fiscally conservative ones, continued to fight against aid programming. President Dwight D. Eisenhower (R), who succeeded Truman in 1953, also worried about too much aid spending. His doubt led to a less government-driven approach at the start of his presidency. Over time, however, he shifted and became increasingly convinced that the United States needed a bigger and more energetic aid program. There was also a spirited public debate in this period outside Washington, in which activists and writers tried to influence the policy process. Like opponents in Congress, critics in the public sphere approached economic aid from multiple directions, but in each case they challenged ideologies about development. Some, like the authors of the novel The Ugly American, William Lederer and Eugene Burdick, they reached a wide audience. Others, like the Citizen’s Foreign Aid Committee and its better-known companion, the John Birch Society, never had a mainstream impact, but they did develop relationships with elected officials. This forced the Eisenhower administration to fight back and defend aid, and explain why it was money well spent.
