Economy & aidFounding years
Point Four brings the first American technical aid
A technical cooperation agreement under Truman's Point Four programme opened the way for US advisers and development projects in Pakistan.
1 min read
Agreement
Technical Cooperation Agreement
Under President Truman’s Point Four programme
United States · Pakistan
Signed at Karachi
Agreement
Technical Cooperation Agreement
Under President Truman’s Point Four programme
United States · Pakistan
Signed at Karachi
Background
In his inaugural address of January 1949, President Truman set out four foreign-policy aims; the fourth was a programme of technical assistance to help poorer countries develop, which became known as Point Four. It was in part a response to complaints from countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East that American aid had concentrated on Europe1.
What happened
Pakistan signed a Point Four technical cooperation agreement with the United States in Karachi on 9 February 1951; it entered into force the same day. On 2 February 1952 the two governments signed a supplementary agreement, also in Karachi, increasing the American contribution to Pakistan's technical and economic development under the programme2,1.
Why it mattered
The amounts were small compared with what Pakistan had sought in 1947, but the agreement created the framework through which American advisers, training and development projects began to reach Pakistan, before the much larger flows of economic and military aid that followed the 1954 alliance2,3.
Sources
- Point Four Program, Wikipedia · Reference
- Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, Volume XI, Part 2, Editorial Note, Office of the Historian, US Department of State · Primary document
- The United States and Pakistan, 1947–2000: Disenchanted Allies (Dennis Kux), Woodrow Wilson Center Press / Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001 · Scholarly
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