This dissertation addresses U.S. foreign aid as a policy problem and examines new avenues for future aid strategies. Contemporary scholars call for shifting the paradigm of world politics from power to a more economicoriented policy of "Cooperative Capitalism." They call to base US foreign policy on a system of "Global Partnership." In that vein this study argues that future aid policy should be reshaped and carried out as a comprehensive strategy that incorporates trade and aid activities. Such a policy will meet better American domestic and global interests. The dissertation examines aid and trade policies, the linkages between them, and their effect on LOCs' economic growth. The inquiry, conducted as a multiple case study, analyzes past and contemporary documentation concerning u.s. aid and foreign trade activities from 1945 to 1990. / Ph. D.