The Lessons We Forget: From CARE to the Airlift to Cancelling USAID

Only a little over a year after the end of WWII, a U.S. based organization started sending small packages with food and other goods to war-torn Europe that were funded by donations from private citizens. The “Cooperative of American Remittances to Europe” (CARE) did not distinguish between enemy and ally. They sent support to families who were trying to survive in the aftermath of destruction and terror; to children being schooled in unheated classrooms with only scraps of paper to write on, hungry most of the time.

The first 1,480 packages arrived in Berlin on August 16, 1946, the former center of Nazi reign. They were known as the CARE-packages. More than 200,000 should follow during the Berlin Blockade, when Soviet troops cut off Berlin from any transport routes and supply chains. The city was divided into four military sectors occupied by U.S., French, British and Soviet troops. Stalin’s aim was to use the blockade to bring all of Berlin under Soviet control and force the Western powers to renounce the establishment of a democratic state in their occupied zones. He accepted the possibility of starving the Berliners.

Between June 24, 1948 and May 12, 1949, American, French and British military planes were keeping the city alive by transporting everything from cattle to coal, flour to fruit, medical supplies to toilet paper —and also sweets for the children. The candy bombers flew over 92 million miles (148,000,000 km), which is almost the distance from Earth to the Sun. Even when the Soviets ended the blockade, allied planes continued to fly goods in for another three months. To this day, the CARE-packages and the famous Berlin Luftbrücke (Airlift) are seen as proof of the generosity of the American people. Putting human suffering first, Americans demonstrated that hatred and division can be overcome by humanity. The older generation of Germans remember their parents telling them how much they appreciated this sign of kindness.

These packages helped turn enemies into friends and future partners and allies. Germany was eventually allowed back into the circle of civilized countries. In 1955 the country joined NATO which has guaranteed peace and stability for 80 years.

President Kennedy, a war veteran himself who had traveled widely, recognized foreign aid as a humanitarian and strategic policy the U.S. government should embrace. After Congress passed the Foreign Assistance Act (14 September 1961), Kennedy signed an executive order the following November to unite several existing foreign assistance organizations and programs under one agency, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

U.S. administrations from Kennedy to Biden in a bi-partisan consensus recognized that humanitarian and development aid is not only a moral obligation of the richest nation on the face of the earth; they also saw its benefits in a strategic sense as a political tool of soft power. Foreign aid is provided in times of emergencies such as earthquakes, floods or war with all its consequences for civilian populations. It stabilizes struggling nations, fights poverty, creates alliances and gives hope that change is possible to families and the younger generation.

Fast forward to today.

The new administration is unlearning the lessons of CARE, the Luftbrücke, soft power and stable alliances. Not with the stroke of a pen, but a simple e-mail, President Kennedy’s vision, and that of many caring Americans, of a secure and better world has been destroyed :

On Friday, February 7, 2025, at 11:59 pm (EST) all USAID direct hire personnel will be placed on administrative leave globally, with the exception of designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs. Essential personnel expected to continue working will be informed by Agency leadership by Thursday, February 6, at 3:00pm (EST).

Without previous warning, this e-mail was sent to about 10,000 USAID employees in Washington D.C. and its missions in over 100 countries. Funds were almost completely frozen on January 20 when President Trump was inaugurated and are now subject to a ninety-day review. The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, and his squad of twenty-somethings are systematically shutting down government websites, slashing budgets and positions and dismantling government agencies. Musk is doing so as “special government employee” and head of the Trump appointed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), bypassing Congress and violating security and labor laws.

As a result of severe criticism and stark warnings by humanitarian organizations, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, now acting administrator of USAID, announced that there would be a waiver for emergency food aid. Eventually, certain medicine and medical services were exempted from the budget freeze as well. But with USAID employees shut out of their offices and e-mail accounts, and local contractors fired, nobody knows how to act and what to expect in the current hostile climate towards federal employees and institutions.

Freezing some 50 billion Dollars over night has life and death consequences around the globe. It also opens the door to the Chinese and Russians who are seeking to expand their influence globally, especially in resource rich countries in Africa.
As the Brookings Institute states:
Abolishing the congressionally funded USAID would hurt U.S. interests in multiple ways that go beyond the core principle of U.S. policy to save lives.
USAID’s efforts to prevent conflict around the world, encourage democratic and pluralistic processes and protect human rights, reduce suffering from death and disease, encourage sustainable economic growth, and prevent environmental destruction reflect the essence of the United States. They help build an international environment that services U.S. interests and values.

A U.S. retreat on the humanitarian and development front ushers in more terrorism, more pandemics, increasing environmental damage, severe poverty and mass migration. It stifles democratic movements and economic sustainability in the poorest countries of the world. And all this because the Trump administration accuses USAID of fraud and being “woke”, of supporting programs to educate girls, protect LGBTQ+ communities in life-threatening environments and to build sustainable agriculture and energy supplies.

Should foreign aid be reviewed? Absolutely! That is why the system appoints independent inspectors general who review programs and grants regularly in government agencies. One of the first acts of the incoming Trump administration was to fire 17 of them without explanation. Is the U.S. getting the credit it deserves for being one of the largest donors for humanitarian and development aid in the world?* Probably not. But U.S. foreign engagement to make vulnerable people’s lives safer and healthier is indispensable.

USAID might survive the Elon Musk’s “woodchipper” approach. A merger with the State Department was on the books in the late 90s already. But trust in the institution will have been eroded and USAID’s mission will become increasingly politicized. Structures and contacts they helped build in the most endangered and remote parts of the world will be severely impacted.

A good part of the American citizenship will support the slashing of funds and personnel because they claim foreign aid is wasted and should be rerouted to Americans in need. They overlook that it is American goods and services that build the backbone of U.S. foreign aid, that, e.g., their own farmers and the pharma industry profit from it. Foreign aid creates jobs at home and abroad.

But most of all, foreign aid creates good will towards the American people. Whatever happened to mercy and compassion that their grandparents exhibited when they fed the children of a former enemy in the heart of a destroyed Europe back in the late 1940s? The Greatest Generation that fought for freedom and hearts and minds, that knew right from wrong, is gone. Who is stepping into their shoes?

As I keep telling my students, for a democracy to function, a minimum of trust in government institutions and the rule of law is required. That trust is being eroded, actively and purposefully, in the United States.

Notes

https://www.stadtmuseum.de/artikel/care-paket

https://www.defense.gov/News/Feature-Stories/Story/Article/3072635/the-berlin-airlift-what-it-was-its-importance-in-the-cold-war

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Agency_for_International_Development

https://www.usaid.gov

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/reevaluating-and-realigning-united-states-foreign-aid

Tom Bateman. “US orders immediate pause to foreign aid, leaked memo says.” BBC (25 January 2025) https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce9nx5k7lv0o

Tom Bateman. “How a US freeze upended global aid in a matter of days.” BBC (29 January 2025) https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3604r84zjyo