ULI358U-AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY
Chapter 4: Evolution of U.S. Policies Through the World Wars
The Early Era: From “Informal Empire” to Global Power
Americans had, throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, remained loyal to the political testament of their first president, George Washington. In his 1796 Farewell Address to the nation, Washington said that “the great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible” (Avalon Law).
Marking the period 1865-1912, the take-off of the US industrial complex transformed not only the nation’s society but also set the foundations of its foreign policy: the objectives of this generation of Americans was conquering overseas markets and acquiring a series of naval bases and island protectorates that could guard the routes to those markets and, if necessary, could provide the military forces to win conflicts that would /did erupt over those markets. This quest for markets, and source for raw materials was later termed as the quest for an “informal empire” (Mc Cormick, 1990, title) with an exclusively economic preoccupation and -unlike European colonialism- no direct geopolitical aim whatsoever. In short, American expansionism was commercial to begin with and therefore not in contradiction with George Washington’s political isolationism.
Between 1897 and 1901, President William Mc Kinley ushered in the American Century, the era in which the United States replaced Great Britain as the world’s greatest power.The turning point came with Cuban rebellion against Spanish domination in the Caribbean. A first revolt in 1868 lasted until 1878 and was finally crushed by the Spanish while the US did not interfere. A new uprising took place in 1894 and by 1897, Spain’s use of brutal concentration camps as well as military force created enormous US sympathy and financial help, while the American press and President McKinley’s Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Theodore Roosevelt, called for US intervention.
On April 11, the President asked Congress for the use of military force and was granted it on the condition that Cuba would not be annexed by the US. Over the next three months, the United States fought “the easiest and most profitable war of its history”as the 1898 Spanish- American War would be recalled later . In the end, Mc Kinley had established control over Cuba without annexing it.
President Roosevelt negotiated the end of the Russo- Japanese War and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1905. This was followed by his successful mediation in a dispute between France and Germany over Morocco.
America and the Great War
It is an obvious fact that the United States had no direct stake in the outbreak of World War I. technological advances leading to military developments and the growth
of an interlocking system of alliances initiated by the German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck were to act as the catalysts leading to World War I. Europe’s major nations had indeed grouped themselves into two main alliances opposed to each other -Central Powers, composed of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy and the Triple Alliance of Great Britain, France, and Russia. When on June 28, 1914, a Serbian nationalist named Gavrilo Princip assasinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Hapsburg throne, and his wife, visiting Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, no one imagined that it would trigger a chain of events drawing Europe into a world war and the United States into a new era in its foreign relations. By August 1914, World War I had begun.
American Neutrality
On August 4, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson (1913- 1921), then much more interested in domestic than foreign affairs and largely endorsed by his people, declared that the United States would remain “impartial in thought as well as in action”. That, however, meant political neutrality.
It should be underlined at this point that despite a declared neutrality, American protests against Britain remained rather limited while those against Germany’s declaration of a submarine war zone in February 1915 were much more categorical.
This was also a proactive neutrality. eanwhile, President Wilson was vigorously trying to mediate for peace, despite a dramatic incident involving the sinking by Germany of the Lusitania, a British passenger liner, killing 128 Americans on 7 May 1915.
Between March 16 and March 18, the Germans sank three US ships, with the loss of 15 lives. On March 20, 1917, the cabinet approved President Wilson’s decision to go to war.
America at War
The Senate adopted a joint resolution declaring war on Germany by an 82-6 vote on April 4, and the House approved it two days later by a 373-50 vote. War was subsequently declared on Austria-Hungary but not on Bulgaria and Turkey.
The United States did not sign a formal treaty alliance with Allies but remained an “associated power” and sent an Expeditionary Force to Europe under the command of General John J. Pershing.
America’s contribution has ultimately led to German surrender and a final, crushing victory for the Allies.
“Fourteen Points” and the Versailles Peace Treaty
As the war neared its end, President Wilson spelled out his vision of peace in a speech delivered on 8 January 1918 before Congress which was known as the “Fourteen Points” speech.
The specific proposals concerning national boundaries were in accordance with the principle of “national self- determination” based on the Wilsonian notion of democracy implying a people’s freedom to determine its own fate. The only contradiction, as formulated in Article V, was the reference to the colonial question: it was obvious that for Wilson, self-determination did not apply to the European colonies overseas.
The Paris Peace Conference and the Versailles Treaty
The Paris Peace Conference was convened on January 18, 1919. Among the representatives of 27 nations who participated were the leaders of major powers such as Great Britain ( David Lloyd George), France (Georges Clémenceau), Italy ( Vittorio Orlando ), the United States (Woodrow Wilson), as well as Japan, and China. The Soviet Union, having already signed a separate peace treaty with the Central Powers in 1918, was not invited, nor were the defeated powers.
The first antagonism between Wilsonian America and colonial Europe manifested itself over the scope of self- determination.
Despite its shortcomings, the Treaty had its virtues as it was a first tentative to eliminate colonialism, met various nationalist aspirations in Eastern and Central Europe and created a mechanism of collective security through the League Covenant (Clements, 1999, 210-211). The two- hundred page Treaty was presented to Germany on 7 May 1919 and signed by the latter on 28 June. Thus, the bloodiest war ever ended.
The Wilsonian Heritage
Wilsonianism is one of the four main schools of thought that reflect America’s various political values and priorities, alternately (or sometimes simultaneously) marking the conduct of US foreign policy since the beginning: Hamiltonianism, inspired by Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804), one of the Founding Fathers who was also the first Secretary of Treasury and founder of the Federal Reserve – granting priority to the economy in foreign policy; Jeffersonianism, inspired by Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), another Founding Father, author of the Declaration of Independence and third President of the United States -granting priority to the preservation of American democracy by avoiding emphasis on national security policies which tend to restrict liberties at home; Jacksonianism, inspired by Andrew Jackson (1767-1845), the seventh President of the United States, - granting priority to conservative values such as patriotism and militarism, also representing political populism; and finally Wilsonianism, inspired by Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) the twenty-seventh President of the United States, 1919 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, the father of the Fourteen Points and the founder of the League of Nations- granting priority to building democracy and peace worldwide.
The Inter-War Period: From Internationalism Back to Isolationism
International disarmament became an important objective for the United States throughout the 1920s. It all started with President Harding who convened the Washington Naval Conference in 1921 and 1922 which the foreign ministers of Great Britain, France, Italy, and Japan attended.
In Asia, the Washington Conference of 1921-22 established a framework for cooperation and stability.
It should also be underlined that the 1920s were marked by an intense economic expansion overseas as American private capital helped stabilize the German economy given that the latter had trouble paying reparations which, in turn, prevented European allies from paying America back their debts well exceeding $10 billion.
The Great Depression and the Rise of Totalitarianism
All this would come to a halt with the Great Depression of 1929, the worst economic downturn in the history of the industrialized world, lasting until 1939. It began after the stock market crash of October 1929, which sent Wall Street into a panic and wiped out millions of investors
On October 24, 1929, as nervous investors began selling overpriced shares, the stock market crash that some had feared happened at last. A record 12.9 million shares were traded that day, known as “Black Thursday”.
Seizing power either by way of popular elections (as in Nazi Germany) or violent revolution (as in Bolshevik Russia), both right and left totalitarianisms were mobilized against the theory and praxis of liberalism, erecting the State as the key institutional apparatus and imposing undiluted nationalism as ideology, with class or race as the defining terms of their respective struggles. Totalitarianism also led to the quasi-sanctification of war in foreign policy, partly because of the aggressive nature of the ideology itself, partly to legitimize the new domestic order.
A rising international tension would follow all throughout the 1930s. In 1935, Italy invaded Ethiopia; in 1936, Hitler formed an alliance with Italy. Later Japan joined it, which createdthe “Berlin-Rome-Tokyo Axis “ against the Comintern.
America’s Response: Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal and the Neutrality Acts
America’s inter-war and wartime president Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945) inherited the Great Depression. In what was called the First Hundred Days, no less than fourteen presidential messages were issued, fourteen historic laws promulgated, and a hundred days later, the New Deal was launched.
The clearest expression of antiwar sentiment was the enactment of three Neutrality Acts passed between August 1935 and May 1937.
America Re-Enters the Arena: World War II
Suffice it to follow President Roosevelt’s itinerary between the mid-1930s and the attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 which led to America’s entry in the war, to verify the accuracy of this diagnosis.
In his famous “Quarantine Speech” of 5 October 1937, where he compared war to an epidemic and the necessity for the community to join in a quarantine against it, FDR openly warned the American people that despite their will to stay out of war there was no insurance “against the disastrous effects of war and the dangers of involvement”.
Soon after, the US joined the League in condemning Japan for violating the Nine-Power Treaty and the Paris Peace Pact. The Japanese response was, in December 1937, the bombing and sinking of a US gunboat, the Panay, and three tankers it was escorting up the Chinese river of Yangtze to take aviation fuel to the Chinese. Two Americans and many Chinese civilians were killed.
But of course, the real threat would come from Germany. Even though, under isolationist pressure, the US government did not react to Austria’s Anschluss to Germany in March 1938, the ensuing Munich Conference of September 1938 where England and France agreed to allow Hitler to occupy part of Czechoslovakia in return for his promise to respect the remainder of its territory, was a turning point for President Roosevelt.
So much so that as Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, thus finally triggering the longdreaded world war, President Roosevelt could not abandon the official neutrality policy right away. This period coincided with what is referred to as “phony war” in Europe where little military action took place. This until Germany’s Blitzkrieg, the spring 1940 general offensive against Scandinavia, France, Belgium and Holland as each one fell to German forces before it culminated with the occupation of Paris in June. Western Europe was thus conquered by Nazi Germany.
Heading Toward Pearl Harbor
The first move was the “destroyer deal” arrangement with Britain in September, a barter arrangement in which fifty US destroyers were transferred to Britain in return for the US lease of some British bases in the Western Hemisphere, such as those in Newfoundland, Bermuda, and Trinidad.
Then, Roosevelt moved quickly to arm the United States, undertaking the construction of a navy large enough to defend both the Atlantic and the Pacific, enhancing air power through the building of B17, B24 and B29 bombers, passing the draft and selective service act by September to increase the number of personnel in the US armed forces from 335,000 in 1939 to 1,800,000 in 1941, while annual military spending soared from $1.4 billion to $6.3 billion. In June 1940, the President appointed to his cabinet two leading Republicans, both ardent
interventionists: former Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson as Secretary of War, and Frank Knox as Secretary of the Navy, to insure a bipartisan coalition government.
FDR ordered in September 1941 that the positions of German submarines be reported to the British navy. This, in turn, triggered the torpedoing by the Germans of an American destroyer, the Greer, which was signaling the location of a German submarine. The response was a presidential order to the US Navy to sink any German or Italian submarine on sight. That meant being practically at war.
353 war planes of the Japanese Air Force conducted a 110 minute-long attack in two waves on Sunday, 7 December 1941, sinking six American battleships including two destroyers, damaging 188 aircrafts and inflicting circa 3,500 casualties with 2,335 killed (historyextra.com). In accordance with the Tripartite Pact with his allies, Hitler declared war on the United States on 11 December
War and Diplomacy
From the perspective of the United States, the involvement in World War II meant: a. the display, for the first time, of its military might across the Atlantic, the Pacific, North Africa and the Middle East simultaneously, thus propelling it into becoming a 20th century global power; b. the combination of conflict and diplomacy, since all throughout the war, it collaborated with the allies to construct the post-war world order that would come to be known as the American Century.
The first phase can be labeled as “peripheral” as the American administration, rather than opening a second- front in Europe as suggested by its military, followed British PM Churchill’s advice in participating in the North African campaign to invade the French colonies of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia -which remained under the authority of the Vichy régime, collaborating with the Germans.
The second phase was one of “active involvement” for the US. Following the German defeat at Stalingrad in January 1943, the Allies proceeded to the invasion of Sicily and Italy and attacks of Japanese-occupied central Pacific islands.
Post-war policies began to be shaped during this period as the “Big Three” (that is, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin) met in Tehran at the end of 1943 and the beginning of 1944, to discuss the post-war occupation formulae of Germany and agreed upon Prussia’s incorporation into Poland and the division of Germany into three zones of occupation to be administered by the US, Great Britain, and the USSR.
The third and last phase was aimed at “shaping the new world order” as the Allies were gaining ground in all fronts of military combat, while at the same time they were negotiating the post-war world order. From the summer of 1944 onward, France and the Benelux
countries were liberated, the Soviet counteroffensive led Consequently, Public Law 253 known as the National to the liberation of Poland, Bulgaria, Rumania, Yugoslavia Security Act of 1947 was enacted on 26 July, 1947, and Eastern Germany -to be occupied, in turn, by the Red reorganizing the structure of the U.S. armed forces. It Army. While Nazi Germany was thus being defeated in created the office of Secretary of Defense to oversee the Europe, the American counteroffensive drove the Japanese nation’s military establishment and also created the away from the Philippines which were reconquered. National Security Council (NSC) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) which grew out of the World The second and last meeting between Roosevelt, War II Office of Strategic Services (OSS). Churchill, and Stalin together took place at the Yalta Conference of February 1945 where the main talk was about defeating Japan as soon as possible, given the fact that Germany was about to surrender.
The Truman Era: From Hot War to Cold War
President Roosevelt died of a stroke on April 12, 1945, without having seen Germany’s surrender on May 8, along with Adolf Hitler’s suicide in his bunker in Berlin. He would be replaced by his Vice President, Harry S. Truman, a Southern small-town Democrat.
When he became president, Truman knew nothing about the Manhattan Project. Once informed, he set up an advisory committee chaired by Secretary of War Henry Stimson and which recommended the bomb’s deployment against Japan as soon as it would be available.
This not only put an end to World War II but also ushered in a new era in world politics, with international security hostage to the “balance of terror” as nuclear weapons would be gradually acquired by the permanent members of the UN Security Council (USSR in 1949, UK in 1952, France in 1960, China in 1964) - never to be used again to this day, however.
While British Prime Minister Winston Churchill made his famous speech of Fulton, Missouri, in March 1946 in the presence of President Truman, charging that the Soviets had lowered an “iron curtain” across Europe, Moscow’s pressure had been growing for some time upon Turkey with territorial claims on the Eastern provinces of Kars and Ardahan, calls for the revision of the 1936 Montreux Convention regulating the regime over the Straits , the abolition of the 1939 Anglo-French-Turkish Treaty of Mutual Assistance, and the establishment of joint Soviet- Turkish naval bases across the Dardanelles.
The Turning Point: 1947
After weeks of consultation with military and congressional leaders, President Truman made a momentous address to Congress on 12 March 1947, underlining the danger looming over the two countries and declaring in what would be known as the Truman Doctrine, that “ it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures”.
What would follow was the European Recovery Program, known as the Marshall Plan, announced by Secretary of State Marshall in a 5 June, 1947 speech at Harvard University to help ensure Europe’s survival, given its “economic, social, and political survival”.