Ad Astra Per Aspera: Meditations On the Ecology of Technical Assistance Administration
| Published date | 01 September 1958 |
| Date | 01 September 1958 |
| DOI | 10.1177/106591295801100301 |
| Author | Paul L. Beckett |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
437
AD
ASTRA
PER
ASPERA:
MEDITATIONS
ON
THE
ECOLOGY
OF
TECHNICAL
ASSISTANCE
ADMINISTRATION*
PAUL
L.
BECKETT
State
College
of
Washington
HE
SOMEWHAT
TRITE
Latin
motto
with
which
I
have
chosen
t
to
preface
the
title
of
this
address
is,
I
presume,
familiar
to
all
of
-t-
you,
at
least
to
all
of
you
old
enough
to
have been
exposed
to
a
little
Latin
on
your
way
through
high
school.
It
was
in
my
day
one
of
the
standard
entries
in
high
school
autograph
books,
along
with
such
gems
as
&dquo;Roses
are
red;
violets
are
blue;
sugar
is
sweet;
and
so
are
you,&dquo;
and
the
inevitable
scrawl
by
someone
on
the
back
cover
to
the
eff ect
that
that
particular
friend,
&dquo;by
hook
or
by
crook,&dquo;
was
going
to
be
the
&dquo;last
in
this
durned
book.&dquo;
It
is
also
-
&dquo;ad
astra
per
aspera,&dquo;
that
is,
&dquo;to
the
stars
through
diffi..
culties&dquo;
-
the
motto
of
the
great
state
of
Kansas,
and
perhaps
of
some
other
states
as
well;
and
about
as
good
a
four-word
description
as
one
could
devise
of
some
of
the
United
States’
recent
efforts
in
the
field
of
space
travel.
But
I
did
not
come
here
today
to
teach
you
Latin,
or
to
entertain
you
with
light
talk
or
jokes
about
President
Eisenhower.
I
came
to
make
a
presidential
address,
which,
as
I
understand
it,
is
quite
a
different
thing.
I
am
still
not
sure
just
what
a
presidential
address
should
contain,
though
I
have
been
pondering
this
question
for
several
months
and
studying
the
published
addresses
of
my
illustrious
predecessors
in
the
presidency
of
this
association.
But
of
one
thing
I
am
sure,
and
that
is
that
a
presidential
ad-
dress
to
an
assemblage
such
as
this
must
not
be
merely
entertaining.
Some-
where
in
it
there
must
be
some
food
for
thought,
some
evidence
that
the
president
is
a
thinker,
a
man
of
parts.
Not
much
food,
perhaps,
and
not
much
evidence,
but
some.
Otherwise,
some
of
the
intellectuals
in
the
audi-
ence
-
and
there
are
always
a
few
intellectuals
in
an
association
such
as
ours
- are
going
to
get
the
idea
that
they
shouldn’t
have
voted
for
this
man
for
president
in
the
first
place,
and
perhaps
start
a
movement
to
have
his
name
expunged
from
the
list
of
ex-presidents
-
which
is
a
horrible
thing
for
a
man
about
to
become
an
ex-president
to
contemplate.
I
come
now
to
the
subject
of
my
talk
today,
since
I
don’t think
I
can
get
away
much
longer
with
beating
around
the
bush.
I
would
like
to
talk
for
a
little
while
about
just
a
few
of
the
aspera
one can
expect
to
encounter
if
he
is
fortunate
enough
(or
foolish
enough,
depending
on
the
way
you
&dquo;‘ Presidential
address
delivered
at
the
eleventh
annual
meeting
of
the
Pacific
Northwest
Political
Science
Association
at
Montana
State
University,
Missoula,
Montana,
May
3, 1958.
438
look
at
it)
to
get
involved
in
technical
assistance
work
in
one
of
the
sup-
posedly
&dquo;underdeveloped&dquo;
countries
of
the
world.
I
have
chosen
this
subject
because
it
is
something
I
have
learned
a
little
about
in
the
course
of
two
technical
assistance
assignments
in
recent
years,
and
because
I
have
become
pretty
firmly
convinced,
on
the
basis
of
this
experience,
of
the
potential
value
and
usefulness
of
developing
something
in
the
way
of
a
&dquo;case
literature&dquo;
of
technical
assistance
administration
made
up
of
reports
by
ex-participants.
Much
of
what
one
is
likely
to
read
or
hear
about
technical
assistance
nowadays
is
either
overoptimistic,
and
glosses
over
hazards,
failures,
and
difficulties
in
the
interest
of
presenting
a
roseate
picture
to
taxpayers
and
inquiring
Congressmen,
or
goes
to
the
other
extreme
in
an
effort
to
prove
that
the
whole
business
is
a
giant
boondoggle
and
a
waste
of
the
taxpayer’s
money.
Neither
extreme
represents,
of
course,
anything
like
a
true
picture
of
what
has
been
going
on
all
over
the
world
these
past
ten
years
or
so,
or
anything
approximating
the
picture
one
gets
if
he
is
actually
involved
in
technical
assistance
work
abroad.
My
own
experience
in
such
work,
as
at
least
some
of
you
know,
has
embraced
not
only
two
quite
different
and
rather
widely
separated
Asian
countries,
but
also
two
quite
different,
and
very
interestingly
different,
forms
of
technical
assistance.
From
the
fall
of
1951
through
the
summer
of
1953,
I
was
engaged
first
in
setting
up
and
then
in
directing
an
academic
training
program
in
public
administration
at
the
American
University
of
Beirut
in
Lebanon,
under
a
contract
between
the
university
and
the
U.S.
Technical
Co-operation
Ad-
ministration.
This
was
a
fascinating
and,
for
me
at
least,
a
tremendously
educational
and
rewarding
experience.
I
will
not
have
time
to
say
much
about
it
here,
except
as
it
relates
to
the
subject
of
this
talk.’
Wore
recently
I
w,,is
drawn
into
a
technical
assistance
assignment
of
a
very
different
kind,
this
time
in
Pakistan
under
the
auspices
of
the
Har-
vard
University
Graduate
School
of
Public
Administration
and
the
Ford
Foundation.
Ford
has
since
late
1953
or
early
1954
had
a
contract
with
the
Pakistan
government
to
furnish
technical
assistance
to
the
Pakistan
Planning
Board;
the
Harvard
Graduate
School
was
chosen
to
administer
the
program,
and
has
had
a
team
of
advisers
and
consultants
working
with
the
Board
since
the
spring
of
1954.
Mainly
they
have
been
general
econo-
mists,
agricultural
economists,
finance
and
industries
specialists,
and
engi-
neers,
with
a
sprinkling
of
architects
and
sociologists.
However,
on
three
occasions
public
administration
consultants
have
been
brought
in
for
rela-
1
For
published
reports
on
this
experience,
see
"Letters
from
Beirut"
(with
Fredrick
Bent),
Public
Administration
Review,
XIII
(1953),
1-11;
and
"Public
Administration
Training
as
Technical
Assistance:
Some
Further
Observations
Based
on
Experience
in
Beirut,"
Western
Political
Quarterly,
IX
(1956),
151-72.
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