The aide money wasn't there to fix things, it was there for soft power.

Once you understand that it makes a whole lot more sense why corruption was never really addressed and things didn't really get better.

The way it works was simple "Do what we want you to do OR ELSE we'll pull your aide. It'd be a shame if that happened".

That is ultimately the power that allowed the US to keep these countries in check. To make them follow US trade policy in lock step.

To sell that to the american public was simply masking the whole thing as giving aide.

Now, I think it's wrong to just completely pull the plug. The aide wasn't doing nothing and it wasn't just soft power. The needed reform shouldn't have happened in one big action.