United States Foreign Policy Since 1945

It seems that the United States has been one of the most dominant, if not the most dominant, countries in the world, since the Declaration of Independence. Yet, on Monday, April 17, 1961, our government experienced incredible criticism and extreme embarrassment when Fidel Castro, dictator of Cuba, instantly stopped an invasion on the Cuban beach known as the Bay of Pigs. President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, his advisors, and many Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officials, made the largest error of their political careers. Once the decision was made to invade Cuba, to end Castro and his Communist government, Kennedy and his administration were never looked at in the same light nor trusted again. Russian leader Nikita

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.

The U.S was extremely reluctant to be drawn into the wars that emerged in Asia in 1937 and European nations in 1939. Disillusioned with the experience of the first World War, when huge number of trench warfare casualties had led to a peace that Americans believed betrayed the objectives they had fought for, the U.S sought to deflect from all forms of entangling alliances. Between the Manchurian crisis and invasion of Germany in the 1930s, the U.S edged slowly along the road that resulted in the second World War (Allison, Grey and Valentine, 252). During the 1930s, the U.S largely preferred to remain a bystander, even going to an extend of enacting neutrality legislation in the mid-1930s, in a bid to prevent involvement in any potential war.

A better way to explain United States Foreign Policy is by high and low tide being isolation. Although the United States Foreign was isolation before World War two started it changed to interevne after the attack on Pearl Harbor which pulled the United States into the war which was ended by the dropping of two atomic bombs. The United States foreign policy is changed to intervene during World War one. In 1920’s was the end of World War One at the Treaty of Versailles. This war was pointless and was a massive destruction of human life.

Between the years of 1930 and 1941 american foreign policy changed how it worked and its goals. They changed because of the threats in the outside world and because of all the absolute need for us to get involved in the war. During this time the world war was restarting in Europe and was leaving no choice except for the United States to get involved in the war. People were dissolving treaties and fighting and the united states could not remain neutral if they hoped to avoid losing their allies. The united states foreign policy changed because of threats and because of the need in Europe.

After the Second World War, American foreign policy was, for the most part, different then post World War 1 foreign policy. As a result of the war, we decided that threats to peace and freedom elsewhere in the world did affect us, that if we ignored serious trouble in the world it would probably eventually find us. Thus, after the war we became internationalist using our power and prestige to help and protect our friends and acting to prevent wars wherever possible or to minimize them when they did break out.

Over the years 1930 through 1941 the goals of American foreign policy generally changed. In the earlier years America dealt with war and fought with other countries. America was not very smart in learning to stay out of war. Over the years, America became more neutral and attempted to stay out of war as much as possible. Throughout the years, important figures wrote documents to support America’s journey and decisions.

Prior to World War 2, America was in a Great Depression that cause politicians to focus on domestic issues. At the start of another world war the United States declare neutrality, but it shows sympathy to democracies. When Japan bombed Pearl Harbor America stop being isolationist to combat external threats. The United States didn’t address the domestic issues that plague the country for years. However, Proxity wars, Truman’s policies, and rising tensions shaped the world and US. Therefore, the role of the US would change from managing the Americas to supporting democracies and governments around the world to stop the spread of communism.

The U.S. foreign policy has always been linked to the domestic policy since the U.S. never feared of expanding its national interests over the national boarders. Isolation for the U.S. usually implied slow economic growth and the large number of destructive conflicts within, while impudent foreign policy always guaranteed an abrupt economic growth for the U.S. economy. After the U.S. intervened in the WWI and the WWII, the U.S. economy witnessed a tremendous economic growth, nearly elimination of the unemployment, rapid urbanization and overall growth of the standards of living across the country. Decisive foreign policy has always been providing the U.S. economy with the sustainable and rapid economic growth, unlike the policy aimed at isolation of the U.S.

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.

With such events occurring quickly in such a small time period, the second World War came as a massive shock. Yet again, Americans called for isolationism and neutrality as they believed America should focus on ending the Great Depression, not worrying about and dealing with the international issues of other nations and peoples. By analyzing Document 5, it is clear that many Americans still believe in isolationism during the Great Depression. Bennett Champ Clark states in his Defense of the First Neutrality Act that “the desire to keep the United States from becoming involved in any war between foreign nations seems practically unanimous among the rank and file of American citizens.” Americans influenced the US foreign policy yet again as the First Neutrality Act was passed in 1935. By analyzing Document 6, it is clear that President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the choices he made were still influenced by isolationist sentiment as he states in his Quarantine Speech that “it is my determination to adopt every practicable measure to avoid involvement in war.” However, it is clear in President Roosevelt's speech that he knew that entering the war was inevitable as he states that the “peace of the world and the welfare and security of every nation, including our own is today being threatened by that very thing (war).” Although the United States tried its best to not enter the second World War for many years, it could not avoided by the end of 1941. On December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese. The federal government’s response to this attack can be analyzed in Document 7, President Roosevelt’s Pearl Harbor Address to the Congress of the United States. In response to the attack, Roosevelt calls for Congress to “declare . . . a state of war has existed between the United States and the

The turn of the twentieth century brought about changes in all aspects of American domestic society and especially in the course of U.S. Foreign Policy. The factors leading up to American involvement in the Spanish-American War of 1898 and in World War II, respectively, mark drastic shifts in domestic attitudes towards America’s role in the world. Ostensibly, the decisions to intervene in Cuba in 1898 and in Europe in 1917 were both products of aggressions against Americans at sea, endangered economic interests, and the fear of European encroachment upon the Western Hemisphere. Domestically, however, the hyper masculinity and expansionist fervor precipitating the U.S. decision to intervene in Cuba contrasts sharply with the reform-driven decision-making process which preceded U.S. entry into WWI. Both cases of military intervention constitute acts of imperialism, albeit in different senses, as the underlying goal of the United States’ 1898 intervention in Cuba was physical expansion, while America’s longstanding quest for an Ideological Empire was born with entrance into WWI.

America 's policy of neutrality and isolationism changed after the Japanese attack on Harbor. It all started in 1930 in world war 1 the great depression, when people lost their live in the battle to push the american public to the policy toward isolationism. The European and Asian were involved in the conflict of the law issues of the isolation. After that the U.S avoided the political and military across the oceans so they can continued to expand their population and their money to protect Latin America. The leader that was in the isolationist movement was President George Washington for the European wars of politics. “ After world war 1, many american did not want to involve the United States in fighting between other countries”(hyson 18). The U.S didn 't want to get involved with these problem of the country.

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

In order to understand the importance of the Cuban Missile Crisis in American history one must first understand the Cold War drama, Castro’s rise to power, and the American operations that set up the crisis. “The term Cold War refers