My constant appeal to American liberals was to face the long, hard years and not to distract us with the offer of short cuts and easy solutions begot… - Dean Acheson

The test for aid to poor nations is therefore whether it makes them capable of being productive. If it fails to do so, it is likely to make them even poorer in the – not so very – long run.

Throughout the Near East lay rare tinder for anti-Western propaganda: a Moslem culture and history, bitter Arab nationalism galled by Jewish immigration under British protection and with massive American financial support, the remnants of a colonial status, and a sense of grievance that a vast natural resource was being extracted by foreigners under arrangements thought unfair to those living on the surface. This tinder could be, and was, lighted everywhere...

In response, Acheson wrote to "tell a tale of large conceptions, great achievements...Its hero is the American people."