The Politics of Leverage

U.S. foreign aid, occasionally high-principled and altruistic, most of the time is used as a way of exerting diplomatic leverage. As such, its rationale can be precarious. Two recent examples: > After the assassination last month of a Chilean opposition leader, former Vice President Edmundo Perez Zujovic, the killers were identified as members of the extreme leftist Organized Vanguard of the People. But Communist and Socialist politicians, as well as several pro-government newspapers, accused the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency of being behind the murder. Defense Minister Alejandro Rios Valdivia did not specifically blame the CIA, but he told the Chilean Senate that "hidden interests far beyond our borders . . . who are being harmed through revolutionary changes" were the real culprits. The Marxist government of Salvador Allende Gossens, while staunchly maintaining that it had never accused the U.S. of wrongdoing, refused to exonerate the CIA, and the charge stuck in the public mind.

The Nixon Administration is aware that such an incident could cause further damage to an already fragile relationship. It is also mindful that negotiations will soon be held to determine the value of U.S. copper properties that are to be nationalized by the Chilean government. Accordingly, Washington has adopted a stance of calculated ambiguity toward Chile. Last week the Administration decided to grant Santiago $5,000,000 in credits for the purchase of paratroop equipment and a $4,000,000 C-130 military transport. It was the first new military aid since the Allende government came to power last October.

> The Pakistan army's crackdown on East Pakistan last spring has resulted in the deaths of as many as 200,000 Bengalis. Another 6,000,000 have fled across the border, saddling India with a massive refugee problem.

The World Bank, as well as most of the Western aid-giving nations, has concluded that economic aid to Pakistan should be suspended until the government of President Agha Mohammed Yahya Khan takes significant steps toward easing its repression of the East. Last week, however, the Nixon Administration admitted that its economic aid to Pakistan, which amounted to $213 million last year, will continue. Even military aid, which theoretically was cut off when the terror began in East Pakistan on March 25, will not be suspended for equipment ordered before that date.

The U.S. has a dual motive: maintaining leverage with Yahya to seek a settlement in East Pakistan, and preventing Islamabad from becoming even more reliant on Peking than it already is for military assistance. Though Yahya promised last week that he would convene a "legislature" within four months, the conflict in East Pakistan is continuing, and there is no sign that leverage is producing the desired result.

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