AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY OVERVIEW

THE PURPOSE OF US FOREIGN POLICY

The purpose of United States foreign policy is to protect the security and well-being of United States citizens. This means the government is always trying to promote the safety of our citizens. Moreover, the government is trying to promote the economic interests of the nation and certain social or political values: democracy, capitalism, and the love of individual rights.

AMERICAN POLICY IS BUILT ON WHAT????

It is often stated – incorrectly – that the United States was an isolationist nation from its foundation until World War I… If you completely disregard everyone on Earth except Europeans, that may be true. But to the rest of the world, particularly Indians, Mexicans, and the people of the Americas, we were engaged in expansionist imperialism – taking over much of the continent of North America.

GEORGE WASHINGTON’S FAREWELL ADDRESSGeorge Washington’s “Farewell Address” was really just a speech delivered to the nation upon his retirement from the office of the Presidency. In his speech, he warned Americans to beware foreign entanglements and avoid alliances with European nations. He knew that the United States was too weak to mix it up with more powerful European nations; however, trade and expansion within North and South America was not at all off limits.

THE MONROE DOCTRINE

The Monroe Doctrine was issued in December of 1823, and it was a declaration to European nations that the American continents were no longer available for colonization. The United States would stay out of the affairs of Europe, and we expected Europeans to stop colonizing or harassing new American republics.

AMERICAN TERRITORIAL ACQUISITIONS, 1803 - 1898

The Louisiana Territory

Florida

The Mexican Cession

The Gadsden Purchase

Alaska

The Philippines

THE SPANISH AMERICAN WAR, 1898

The Spanish-American War might have been avoided with better diplomacy, but many Americans – most notably newspaper editors – wanted the war to occur. Those who sought an American Empire viewed the Spanish colonies as low fruit. The United States would take over Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines as colonies after the war, and Cuba became an American protectorate.

THE ROOSEVELT COROLLARY

The Roosevelt Corollary was an addition to the Monroe Doctrine which proclaimed that the United States reversed the right to protect American republics from European powers – and, as it worked out, from each other. The American police powers were invoked repeatedly in the early 20th Century to prevent revolutions or civil war in Latin America in place like: Nicaragua, Haiti, and Cuba.

THE PANAMA CANAL ZONE

The clearest example of “Big Stick” diplomacy was the acquisition of the Panama Canal Zone in 1903. Panamanian independence was secured when Roosevelt authorized the USS Nashville and a host of Marines to secure the region – which was once the northernmost province of Columbia…

President Theodore Roosevelt

THE OPEN DOOR POLICY IN CHINA

The Open Door Policy with China was a proposal by the United States which would have allowed Americans access to all of the markets in China – regardless of the interests of the Chinese or other colonial rivals. The Chinese – who didn’t particularly want to trade with Americans, might have called I the “kick our door down policy.” In any case, it was not very successful.

AMERICAN GOALS IN WORLD WAR I

Americans tried for over two years to stay out of World War I; however, after the sinking of the Lusitania, the violation of the Sussex Pledge, and the Zimmermann Telegram’s discovery, there was little else to do but join the war. Woodrow Wilson’s goals upon entering the war were vast: the make the world safe for democracy, self-determination of nations, free trade, freedom of the seas, and a League of Nations – an international peacekeeping government which would make World War I a “war to end all wars.” Most of these dreams turned out to be overly optimistic.

WORLD WAR II: ARSENAL OF DEMOCRACYThe United States was attacked by Japan on December 7th, 1941 – leading to World War II. Yet, when the United States entered the war, the first priority was to defeat Nazi Germany. The idea of defeating all of the Axis powers was one born of advancing American ideals: democracy, capitalism, and individual rights – and, of course, a prime motivation was self-defense, as well. But when the war was close to it’s end, the United States faced much more complicated challenges in terms of accomplishing it’s missions.

COLLECTIVE SECURITY AND THE UNITED NATIONS

After the failed efforts of the League of Nations demonstrated how important it was to have the world’s major powers cooperating in order to prevent aggression and disorder, the United States chose to commit itself to the United Nation’s charter in 1945. The UN, established the following year, was an effective peacekeeping force, devoted to the idea of collective security. The United State would double down on this approach by organizing NATO: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949.

DETERRENCE: PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH The United States had always feared the idea of a standing army prior to World War II. But with World War II, the world entered the atomic age, and military preparedness became full time occupation. Thus, a new strategy. The United States sought to make our military so powerful and our defenses so impenetrable, that no nation would date attack us. For a brief time, this policy brought us some sense of security. But in 1949, the Soviet Union acquired the bomb, too. Through espionage, carried out by Americans…

THE COLD WAR: A WAR OF IDEOLOGIES

The Cold War was a time of some real fear over the issue of atomic weapons; however, it was more frequently a war of ideas. The American values of democracy, capitalism, and individual rights against the Soviet ideals of command economics, economic equality, and a dictatorship of the proletariat.

THE TRUMAN DOCTRINEHarry S. Truman introduced the policy of containment during the late 1940s – an attempt to stop the spread of communism. Using capital investments and programs like the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan, he was able to prevent a host of nations from falling under the influence of Soviet ideologies. The Truman Doctrine was his first such effort. It successfully targeted Greece and Turkey – two nations which later became capitalist, democratic nations and members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

THE KOREAN WAR, 1950 - 1953

The policy of containment was not always implemented by using financial means. There were more dangerous interventions like the Berlin Airlift (1948 – 1949) and the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962). Occasionally, the United States was even required to use force to achieve its objectives. The two best examples of this are the Korean War and the Vietnam War. In Korea, communist aggression on the part of Kim Il Sung – supported by Mao Zedong’s Chinese Communist forces – resulted in a long and bloody battle which ended in stalemate: divided Korea still persists.

THE VIETNAM WAR

The Vietnam War was a nightmare for Americans and worse still for the Vietnamese people. Americans, believing in the Domino Theory, maintained that if Vietnam fell to communism, then other nations might fall as well: Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, or the Philippines. Although the United States committed hundreds of thousands of troops to cause, spent millions and millions of dollars, and killed millions of Vietnamese people, in the end, they lost. Vietnam fell to communism, and even to this day, it has a command economy and is ruled by a communist regime.

DÉTENTE: EASING TENSIONS AND SEEKING PEACE

Détente is the policy of reducing tensions between nations, and Richard Nixon did his level best to reduce tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. He opened relations with Communist China, and negotiated a treaty – the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty – which lessened the number of ICBMs and other atomic weapons and made the world a safer place. Nixon’s downfall? It was the same as LBJ’s. Even though he claimed he had a secret plan to withdraw from Vietnam and bring the United States “Peace with Honor,” the US never left Vietnam while he was in office. More American soldiers died in Vietnam while Nixon was President than had in LBJ’s years.

THE COLD WAR COMES TO AN END…How do we know that the United States won the Cold War? Well, the Berlin Wall was torn down. And, Eastern European nations renounced the communist system. But the most convincing evidence is the most obvious: the Soviet Union collapsed and died. It doesn’t exist any more, because democracy, capitalism, innovation, and individual rights won out over oppressive command economics in the long run. Very few communist regimes still persist worldwide.

CONFLICT IN THE MIDDLE EAST

The Middle East is a complicated region with diverse religious and tribal divisions which have frequently erupted into warfare. The establishment of Israel after World War II was welcomed by the Soviet Union and the United States; however, the nation was greeted by warfare from Arab nations – some of whom declared that Israel had not right to exist. The United States has worked over the years to support our democratic, capitalist allies in the region – and Israel is the first nation on the list. In the past decade, American interventions in the Middle East have only increased our involvement in the region. Unfortunately, greater American involvement has meant greater dangers.

THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN 2001 - PRESENT

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