Records of the U.S. Foreign Assistance Agencies, 1948-1961: The Economic Cooperation Administration's Relief Mission in Post-War China, 1946-1948
The existing scholarship on U.S.-China relations has been dominated by diplomatic themes. In exploring the possible lost chance in economic and cultural relations, this microfilm collection challenges prevailing views. It presents the declassified materials that present a kind of "case study" on the approach of the Economic Cooperation Administration toward China and the Communists in the postwar era.
This collection presents how ECA officials looked for economic and cultural opportunities to promote U.S.-China relations despite the prevailing Cold War suspicions of any and all communists which dominated the minds of American policymakers.
Documentation highlights:
- ECA efforts to urge the State Department to pursue a friendly economic policy toward Communist China and not to jeopardize U.S.-China economic relations
- ECA representation of the the opinion of many American businessmen, in the face of State Department and White House opposition
- Decision following the failure of the Marshall Mission to China to politicize the U.S. economic policy toward China
- Effectiveness of the ECA's implementation of aid to China
- Information on the China Aid Act as part of Title IV of the Foreign Assistance Act
38 reels