An alliance of family fortunes linking Wall Street and the Midwest" was announced last week in the New York Times (1/16/67). "The International Basic Economy Corporation (I.B.E.C.), controlled by the Rockefeller Brothers, and Tower International, Inc. headed by Cyrus S. Eaton Jr., Cleveland financier, plan to cooperate in promoting trade between the Iron Curtain countries, including the Soviet Union, and the United States, Canada and Latin America." I. B. E. C., an investment company specializing in enterprises in underdeveloped nations, already has interests in 29 non-communist foreign countries. "It has been particularly active in Latin America," while Eaton's Tower International "has specialized in promoting and arranging financing of projects in Eastern Europe.' In an interview "Mr. Eaton said that he hoped the arrangement between Tower and I.B.E.C. would lead to a restoring of the old shuttle of finished goods from Europe and raw materials from South America, such as existed before World War I." (Emphasis added)
