The Great American Mission AM ERICA IN THE WORLD SVEN BECKERT AND JEREM I SURI, series editors Also in the Series Martin Klimke, The Other Alliance: Student Protest in West Germany and the United States in the Global Sixties Andrew Zimmerman, Alabama in Africa: Booker T Washington, the German Empire, and the Globalization of the New South Ian Tyrell, Reforming the World: The Creation of America’s Moral Empire Rachel St John, Line in the Sand: A History of the Western U.S.-Mexico Border The Great American Mission MODERNIZATION AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF AN AMERICAN WORLD ORDER David Ekbladh PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PRINCETON AND OXFORD Copyright © 2010 by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TW press.princeton.edu All Rights Reserved Second printing, and first paperback printing, 2011 Paperback ISBN 978-0-691-15245-5 The Library of Congress has cataloged the cloth edition of this book as follows Ekbladh, David, 1972– The great American mission: modernization and the construction of an American world order / David Ekbladh p cm.—(America in the world) Includes bibliographical references and index ISBN 978-0-691-13330-0 (hardcover : acid-free paper) Economic development—United States—History Economic assistance, American—History Industrial policy—United States—History United States— Foreign economic relations United States—Foreign relations I Title HC110.E44E43 2010 338.91’73—dc22 2009014451 British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available This book has been composed in Sabon Printed on acid-free paper ∞ Printed in the United States of America 10 For Leah CONTENTS List of Illustrations Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1 The Rise of an American Style of Development, 1914–1937 CHAPTER 2 The Only Road for Mankind: “Modernisation” to Meet the Challenge of Totalitarianism, 1933– 1944 CHAPTER 3 A Gospel of Liberalism: Point Four and Modernization as National Policy, 1943–1952 CHAPTER 4 “The Proving Ground”: Modernization and U.S Policy in Northeast Asia, 1945–1960 CHAPTER 5 “The Great American Mission”: Modernization and the United States in the World, 1952–1960 CHAPTER 6 A TVA on the Mekong: Modernization at War in Southeast Asia, 1960–1973 CHAPTER 7 “Everything Is Going Wrong”: The Crisis of Development and the End of the Postwar Consensus CHAPTER 8 New Developments: From the Cold War to the “War on Terror” Notes Bibliography Index ILLUSTRATIONS 2.1 The Norns Dam 2.2 “Mighty Dams Sprang Up” 2.3 Electrical Modernization 2.4 David Lilienthal 2.5 Eugene Staley 3.1 “An Arsenal of Ideas Too” 4.1 New Textbooks Are Issued to South Korean Schoolchildren 4.2 Henry Cabot Lodge Jr Gives a Check to Dag Hammarskjold 4.3 An Employee of Bechtel Corporation Oversees South Korean Workers 5.1 Worldwide High-Wire Act (David Lilienthal and John Blumberg) 5.2 The TVA’s World Offspring 5.3 Tanzanian Sightseers at Loudon Dam 5.4 Walt Rostow Playing Tennis 6.1 John Kennedy Speaks at Muscle Shoals 6.2 Peace Corps Volunteers Training in TVA Facilities 6.3 Lyndon Johnson, David Lilienthal, Walt Rostow, and Robert McNamera on Air Force One 7.1 David Lilienthal, the Shah of Iran, and Other Dignitaries ACKNOWLEDGMENTS INDEBTEDNESS makes the scholarly world go round No project is ever fully the work of a single scholar Therefore, it is a pleasure to owe as much as I do to the many who have helped this book become a reality I knew when I started how important the help of others would be to my scholarship, but I was pleasantly surprised to learn how racking up such debts would enrich my professional and personal life A collection of institutions was instrumental to this project’s completion Grants from the Eisenhower Institute, John F Kennedy Institute, Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend program, Princeton University’s Library Fellows program, Rockefeller Archive Center, Smith Richardson Foundation, and Truman Library Institute made vital research and writing possible The Earhart Foundation was particularly flexible, contributing a series of timely awards The International Development Program and the Foreign Policy Program at the Paul H Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University generously provided a year in an invigorating interdisciplinary environment There, Grace Goodell took an early interest in my work and has been a model of the complements teaching offers scholarship She is also a peerless professional example and a trusted friend An Olin Postdoctoral Fellowship with International Security Studies at Yale University not only provided a wonderful perch to finish the bulk of the initial manuscript but also provided a lesson in scholarly community While in residence there, my home was badly damaged by a fire Immediately upon learning of this, Paul Kennedy and Ted Bromund offered their support I am forever in their debt for the considerable resources that helped undo a nightmare of destroyed research materials and smokedamaged books Like every scholar, I was spoiled by the professionalism of the staff of the libraries and archives that were culled for this project I am grateful to all, but I owe special thanks to Dan Linke and the staff at the Seeley G Mudd Library; Tom Rosenbaum at the Rockefeller Archive Center; and Jonathan Green and Idelle Nissila at the Ford Foundation Archives This book grew out of my dissertation at Columbia University The guidance and support I received from Anders Stephanson, Alan Brinkley, and Charles Armstrong marked the early contours of this project and my career Frank Ninkovich was a model outside reader and has continued to offer beneficial advice Michael Adas with his expansive scholarship and generous nature quickly outgrew the limited role of outside reader to become a valued friend and mentor An opportunity to work with the Carnegie Corporation of New York brought new perspectives and some valued relationships that continue to shape my views David Hamburg provided a model for how scholarship leads to engagement with the issues in the world around ... Ian Tyrell, Reforming the World: The Creation of America’s Moral Empire Rachel St John, Line in the Sand: A History of the Western U.S.-Mexico Border The Great American Mission MODERNIZATION AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF AN AMERICAN WORLD ORDER David Ekbladh PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS... as means of achieving the promise of republican society, and republicanism a means for controlling and containing the dangers of the mechanical world. 5 This theme reappeared through American history.. .The Great American Mission AM ERICA IN THE WORLD SVEN BECKERT AND JEREM I SURI, series editors Also in the Series Martin Klimke, The Other Alliance: Student Protest in West Germany and the United States in the Global Sixties