That quote came from an older American, years ago, during the height of the cold war. Our foreign aid program was increasing, due to Soviet aggression in eastern Europe and a changing China in Asia. Perhaps our aid could be seen as enlightened self-interest. We were paying for a stronger defense that included nations on the periphery, hoping that our aid might swing the balance our way.

Perhaps much of our foreign policy can be seen as a mixture of self interest and true altruism. Particularly in the years immediately following World War II, altruism was foremost. Remember those old pictures of children waiting for American food drops after the Berlin Wall isolated eastern Germany? People were literally starving as countries suffered from the results of broken trade and bombed out cities.

Perhaps our evolving foreign aid was a step up from the wars Europe was saddled with for centuries, wars for obvious conquest. Still, it’s not always certain which attitude is paramount in our aid. Help for needy populations or one more weapon against our enemies?

Also, what influence in other countries will our colleges and universities continue to have, dependent on the numbers of young foreigners coming for higher education in the United States? We are becoming aware of how much our foreign students have contributed to paying for our schools. Now, less aid to higher education, in the form of halting grants and tax breaks threatens those schools. We have seen some of the most influential medical research in the world coming from scholars, paid for by federal grants. What will happen if such grants are decided by how much deference is given to our political parties?

Political parties and election grandstanding are inevitable. Certainly, public tax money should be subject to review. However, grants that serve obvious public good, such as medical research, need the certainty that public funds will allow continuation in the public good until finished, not subject to political whim.