origins of the cold war -> US foreign policy

Question 1

what factors determined the US foreign policy?

Answer 1

• USA has a far more democratic culture than other advanced capitalist nations -> foreign policy discussed in more depth + detail
• anti-imperialism of its principal statesmen who are imperialists in denial -> since America’s birth in 1776, its been shaped by relentless, imperial drives.
• FP shaped by instinctual belief in the inherent superiority of US civilisation over all other societies -> inside every ‘good’ Vietnamese, Arab, Korean etc. is an American waiting for the chance to break out (taken 35m immigrants)
• USA is simultaneously most conservative, advanced, capitalist + most radical nation -> why since 1960s, its given rise to arms races and numerous imperialist interventions in third world but ALSO movements for black civil rights, against Vietnam war and for women’s + gay rights

Question 2

how does the US become involved in isolationism?

Answer 2

• following the American Revolutionary War (1775-83), they realised they had nothing in common with Europe’s imperialism
• believed involvement, alliances and coalitions with European powers will bring them down (as set out by Washington’s 1796 farewell address)

Question 3

James Monroe role as an architect of US foreign policy:

Answer 3

• President in 1820s, introducing Monroe Doctrine (1823)
• Isolationist but international relations forced him to modify Washington’s ways of isolation
• suggests that further efforts by European nations to colonise land/ interfere with states in North/South America would be viewed as acts of aggression, requiring US intervention.
• Isolationism would be fatally undermined in 19thc due to USA expansion + desire for all of Americas to be within sphere of influence.
• ISOLATIONISM UNDERMINED BY EXPANSIONISM

Question 4

what did Americans use to justify its undermining of isolationism?

Answer 4

That its their God-given duty + permission to spread America’s sphere of influence
- e.g. Hawaii opened up to US influence in 1860s
- known as ‘manifest destiny’

Question 5

examples of Isolationism being undermined by Expansionism:

Answer 5

• Spanish-American War 1898: Spain hung on as an Empire until end of 19th.c but US took advantage of civil unrest in Spanish colonies of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, Philippines to take control.
• called China ‘Our China’ -> used for cheap labour + market for goods. Wanted to ensure European nations didn’t take it: ‘Open door policy’

Question 6

Roosevelt’s role in the demise of American Isolationism (1904)

Answer 6

• Roosevelt modified Monroe Doctrine, wanting the US to become an ‘International police power’ to put an end to chronic unrest or wrongdoing in the Western hemisphere.
• The Monroe Doctrine had sought to prevent European intervention, the Roosevelt Corollary was used to justify US intervention, evidencing imperialistic activities

Question 7

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Jan 1933 Pres, Internationalist) aims and actions vis a vis the USSR:

Answer 7

• To continue the spirit of wartime co-operation to re-structure international relations -> through institutions
• to deal with Soviet actions + initiatives on a case-by-case. basis, no matter how displeasing they might seem
• to place constraints on Soviet behaviour in Eastern Europe -> The Declaration on Liberated Europe issued at Yalta at US insistence (Feb 1945) should be seen in this light
• to utilise Soviet influence to restrain British + French imperialism after ww2

Question 8

Roosevelt (1933) and his role in the beginning of WW2 P.1:

Answer 8

• 1938: Roosevelt knew a conflict with Japan was nigh so supports China
• US Presidents could not declare war without the support of congress who wouldnt let him as it as packed with isolationists
• Japanese attack Pearl Harbour in December 1941, bringing USA into ww2
• Roosevelt revived Woodrow Wilson’s language of universalism (Wilsonianism-> advocacy of spread of democracy + capitalism)
• defended US policy on the terms of abstract principles of democracy and economic freedom (later enshrined in such documents such as 1942 Atlantic Charter)

Question 9

Roosevelt (1933) and his role in the beginning of WW2 P.2:

Answer 9

• the high-sounding moral rhetoric of the Declaration of Liberated Europe infuriated the Soviet union. Also happened to reflect the US’ long term economic interests
• Roosevelt called for an economic policy of the ‘Open Door’ -> free trade + equal access to raw materials ( to prevent a relapse into the Depression of 1930s)
  -US wanted security in diff way to SU: The US was a global world power and security to it meant a world open to the free exchange of goods, money and people

Question 10

Roosevelt’s attitudes in 1945:

Answer 10

• Roosevelt was a realist and he knew that the USA and USSR needed to work together at the end of the war despite their differences in ideology.
• Roosevelt wanted the four most powerful countries (Great Britain, China, USA and USSR) to act as ‘policemen’ that would maintain world peace.
• He supported the idea of the United Nations which would maintain world peace and provide a strong Security Council which would work to ‘police’ disputes.

Question 11

Roosevelt’s attitudes to self-determination and decolonisation:

Answer 11

• In opposition to Stalin, Roosevelt believed that Poland should be given self-determination and should be able to be free to govern itself.
• He also believed that decolonisation should be a big part of post-war ideology including the USA decolonising its territory in the Philippines.
• He also wanted to promote the idea of free trade and demobilise the USA as soon as possible.

Question 12

US aims in the aftermath of WW2:

Answer 12

• re-structuring of international relations to create peace and institutions to ensure its continuance
• obtaining access to new markets + new opportunities for investment in Europe + territories of European colonial empires
• prevent social crises caused by fascism, war, and the collapse of European colonial empires from reaching a revolutionary conclusion
  —> think about compatibility of these aims w/ soviets + europeans

Question 13

American assumptions:

Answer 13

• belief in inherent superiority of Anglo-Saxon civilisation over all others
• a commitment to capitalism = hostile to Soviet-style command economics and the economic protectionism of the colonial empires
• belief that liberal democracy was superior to all other forms of gov (commitment lacked when came to respecting other countries in Americas)
• belief that USA couldnt adopt isolationist posture that it had reverted to after WWI - has to become world’s policeman
• primacy of domestic politics - US FP designed to protect administrations from accusations so not patriotic enough on communism + radical nationalism in Third World
• expressed in Truman Doctrine/NATO, Marshall Plan, restructuring of West Germany and Japan