American Foreign Policy 1945-2005 Essay

President Kennedy came to office with warnings of a missile gap. The Soviets had achieved or were achieving a significant advantage in strategic nuclear weapons. Though tensions ran even higher, "Eisenhower’s strategy of massive retaliation made little sense and did not account for the rapidly growing Soviet nuclear arsenal4. Kennedy's nuclear strategy became known as flexible response. The idea was to acquire the military forces that could deal flexibility with varying levels of Soviet Aggression3. The most serious confrontation between Russia and the US was the Cuban Missile Crisis. (Link to Stephanie's page) Soviet leader Khrushchev attempted to place intermediate range missiles in Cuba. Kennedy responded by imposing a quarantine on Cuba. This resulted in the removal of the Soviet missiles and led to Kennedy making the decision to dismantle U.S. missiles based in Turkey. Some analysts argue that the successful outcome was due to the United States’ nuclear superiority, which proved that strategic superiority offered important political advantages5.

Throughout the course of history, the United States has remained consistent with its national interest by taking many different actions in foreign policy. There have been both immediate and long term results of these actions. Foreign policy is the United States policy that defines how we deal with other countries economically and politically. It is made by congress, the president, and the people. Some of the motivations for United States foreign policy are national security, economics, and idealism. The United States entry into World War I in 1917 and the escalation of the Vietnam War in 1964 and the both had great impact on the United States.

The fatal atomic bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the end of World War II are written down in history books today. This is because they had a drastic story behind them that changed the world and the lives of many civilians. The United States decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II had both positive and negative results.

This biography offers insight into the personal and public lives of two men who so initially agreed then feverishly denied each other’s foreign policy proposals. Concluding with Nitze, as the hawk and Kennan, starring as the dove.

After World War II, during the Cold War, the United States started acting more multilaterally by forming treaties and joining groups such as NATO and the UN (Gaddis 67). This was all in an attempt to stop the spread of communism and combat the influence of the Soviet Union. The United States intervened in countries to deter them from becoming communist. They

In 1994, a conflict the US couldn't understand, between clans and tribes it didn't know, in a country where there were no national interests, occurred. The Rwandan War of 1994 did not deserve US intervention. There are four contentions on why the US should not have gotten involved in this Rwandan war. The Black Hawk Down incident, how the UN was there previously there, there being no Possible Gain, and having nothing to do with us. Through the examination of the novel, An Ordinary Man by Paul Rusesabagina, it is Obvious that these key points are valid.

“In view of the wants and needs of an infant United States (1783-1812), the War of 1812 was extremely successful in its results.” The War of 1812 is significant to United States history in a number of ways. The War, and our not losing it, reaffirmed American Independence. Second, the war showed the Americans that a stronger military was needed.

Though the United States was the military power of the world prior to World War II, its foreign policy was one of detachment. The government was determined not to get involved in other countries affairs barring unusual circumstances. A World War provided big enough means to become involved, as many Americans became enraged with the military ambitions of Japan and Germany.

When war broke out, there was no way the world could possibly know the severity it would have taken on the people of the world. Fortunately one country saw and understood that Germany and its allies would have to be stopped. America’s Involvement in World War II not only contributed in the downfall of the insane Adolph Hitler and his Third Reich, but also came at the best time and moment. If the United States entered the war any earlier the consequences would probably have been worse.

As we delve deeper in to the situation, it becomes evident that negotiations were close to being met; however, they failed due to NATO “military annex” (Gibbs). Once the negotiation agreements failed, the US sided with the Albanians and proceeded to attack the Serbians. In their attack, the US used it superior technology (planes) to gain an advantage over the Serbs. Rather than constantly sending men in to harm’s way, the US released a series of air raids to flush out the Serbians. Now, from reading this one may think that the US fully achieved its goal by flushing out the Serbians which they did, but there is more as well. According to Dr. Grant Hammond, the US can say that they met their “goal” by purging Kosovo of the Serbians; however, “can’t say [they] “won” because [they] did not accomplish the established goals. As stated by President Bill Clinton, these [goals] were “to demonstrate the seriousness of NATO’s purpose so

In their book American Foreign Policy since World War 2, Steven W. Hook, and John Spanier take a historical look at American foreign policy. Since its independence, all through to the start of the 20th century, the United States had a policy of detachment. This was rooted in the believe that Europe, the only other meaningful powerful in the world in the 18th and 19th century, had intrinsic issues related to feudism that kept the continent in a constant state of war (Hook & Spanier, 2015). The U.S on its part was far away from Europe and had a unique chance to chart a different course, one free from the troubles of Europe. As a democracy free from the class systems of Europe and hence maintain peace and stability (Hook & Spanier, 2015). To maintain this peace and stability, it was in the United States interests to maintain detachment from Europe. In fact, Monroe wrote that Europe and its flawed system was evil and America should strive as much as possible to stay away from it (Hook & Spanier, 2015). However, in the 20th century, this policy of detachment was put to the test when the United States was drawn into the first and second world wars by external factors. This led the United States to get more engaged in global affairs. The idea behind engagement was to promote the ideals of democracy which, the U.S believed were the pillars of peace, as well as to protect itself from aggressors like Japan in the Second World War. After the

As we approach the next Presidential election the topic of American foreign policy is once again in the spotlight. In this paper, I will examine four major objectives of U.S. foreign policy that have persisted throughout the twentieth century and will discuss the effect of each on our nation’s recent history, with particular focus on key leaders who espoused each objective at various times. In addition, I will relate the effects of American foreign policy objectives, with special attention to their impact on the American middle class. Most importantly, this paper will discuss America’s involvement in WWI, WWII, and the Cold War to the anticipated fulfillment of these objectives—democracy,

The United States continued to use their power in Europe for their benefit. The Untied States, Canada, and ten European nations formed a mutual defense pact called NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) which an attack against one of them would be an attack against all of them, all for one, one for all. The Americans were able to keep Russia out, Untied States in, and Germany down which was perfect for them.

This could have been one of the reasons why there was a large amount of humanitarian intervention in Bosnia. (Snow, 2008) The United Nations (UN), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and the United States (US) all made multiple attempts at intervention in Bosnia. A large number of them were not completely successful. The war ended when with a peace agreement mediated by the US.

Furthermore, when Apache helicopters from Germany were finally ordered to go operate in Albania, in spite of the amount money put into their supposed instantaneous readiness, it took more than 3 weeks of “predeployment preparations” to make it there. After 6 weeks into the war, no Apache had made a single mission. But two of them had crashed during training. The excuse for that is not just “mere bureaucratic foot-dragging”, but the insistence from US Army to support the Apaches with “heavy rock barrages to suppress Serb anti-aircraft weapons”, thus creating a much larger logistical load than just the Apache, hence the delay. But even before the “Apache saga” began, there were available and deployable aircrafts in Italian bases of NATO that might have done the job as well (US 1-10 “Warthogs” and British Royal Air Force Harriers made for “low-altitude bombing at close range”). None was sent, for, once again, motivations of safety. “In the calculus of the NATO democracies”, writes Luttwak, “the immediate possibility of saving thousands of Albanians from massacre and hundreds of thousands from deportation was obviously not worth the lives of a few pilots.” This kind of policy reflects, according to Luttwak, an unavoidable political reality, and shows that even “a large-scale and disinterested intervention” can fail to its primary