The Improbable Welfare State

Butterfield, Fox (1977-11-27). "The Improbable Welfare State". New York Times.

• Has attachment: File:UETC74BH.pdf

Abstract: "COLONIA, Yap. During the early days of the Vietnam War, there used to he a joke in the Pentagon that the best way to defeat the Communists would be to drop Sears catalogues over North and South Vietnam and then give every Vietnamese enough scrip to buy whatever he or she wanted. The scheme had the added virtue, some strategists calculated, of being cheaper than the billions spent on bombing the Vietnamese into submission. The plan was shelved for Vietnam, tit course. We stuck with the bombing. But somehow it ???? ??? ??? been put into operation heir in Yap and the five oilier island districts that make up the United Stales in administered Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, commonly known its Micronesia (the term means “little islands").

"This hybrid collection of 2,000 tropical islands stretch from west of Bewail to soul h of Japan, a vast area covering three million square miles, about the same area as the United States, though the actual land mass of the trust territory is only half that of Rhode Island. Thirty years after officially assuming responsibility for the trust territory from the United Nations in 19,17, the United States has turned these islands into an improbable welfare slate, the most expensive in the Federal budget. Although in the 60's and early 70's island leaders demanded independence from the United Stales —a right guaranteed by the U.N. trusteeship agreement — hardly anyone here mints it : The Micronesians are afraid to sever their financial umbilical cord to Washington. The Carter Administration recently indicated it wants In wind up, by next June, protracted eightinyearinlong negotiations with the islands over their future, to clear the way for eliding the U.S. trusteeship. Rut it now appears the only likely solution is for Washington to become the Islands’ permanent patron...""