A History of Global Health by Randall M. Packard

Author:Randall M. Packard [Packard, Randall M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781421420349
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press

John D. Rockefeller III (left) meeting with President Lyndon B. Johnson (right) to discuss population issues, May 23, 1968. Courtesy of Rockefeller Archive Center.

Johnson reaffirmed his commitment to family planning in his 1967 State of the Union speech, in which he noted that “next to the pursuit of peace, the really greatest challenge to the human family is the race between food supply and population increase” and concluded that “that race … is being lost.” Shortly after this speech, the US Congress moved to earmark funds for the support of population-control efforts. This resulted in a massive infusion of dollars to US-funded international population programs. Johnson linked family planning to US foreign assistance, at one point telling Joseph Califano, who would become his secretary of health, education, and welfare (HEW), “I am not going to piss away foreign aid in nations where they refuse to deal with their own population problems.”11 US support for family planning would continue to grow over the next 15 years as the United States became the dominant funder of population programs in developing countries.

USAID missions were directed to encourage local governments to develop population programs and to support research to demonstrate the economic benefit of such programs. Despite these efforts, USAID was unable to spend the US$35 million that had been earmarked by the US Congress in 1968. President Richard Nixon continued the US commitment to population control, directing the Secretaries of State, the Treasury, and HEW, as well as the USAID administrator, the Peace Corps, and the United States Information Service, “to take steps to enlist the active support of all representatives of the United States abroad … to encourage and assist developing nations to recognize and take action to protect against hazards of unchecked population growth.”12

Despite a growing commitment to supporting population programs abroad, US officials recognized that direct US involvement in these programs raised political concerns both at home and elsewhere. Domestically, there were many who believed that the United States should not be involved in promoting contraception. Catholic opposition, in particular, remained strong. But wider concerns existed. A law that prohibited the distribution of contraceptives under foreign-assistance programs in 1948 remained on the books in 1967. Internationally, US officials were sensitive to local concerns that the United States was trying to restrict the populations of developing countries. Some local governments were nervous about accepting population-control funds directly from the US government. These concerns were particularly intense in Latin American countries, especially Brazil and Mexico, for both political and religious reasons. To deflect these worries, the United States began funneling family-planning funds through intermediaries, including NGOs, local and international family-planning associations, universities, and international organizations. This strategy was also driven by the realization that USAID lacked the specialized personnel needed to run all of the overseas population programs it intended to fund.

One of the unforeseen consequences of channeling USAID money for population activities through organizations dedicated to family planning, rather than as bilateral aid to recipient governments, was that the USAID programs took on a functional rather than a geographical orientation.

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