AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY.   Term Paper ID:30205 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Examines guiding principles of foreign policy during the first eight years of the New Deal Administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR).... More...

10 Pages / 2250 Words 8 sources, 27 Citations, MLA Format $40.00 Return to List of Papers

Paper Abstract: Examines guiding principles of foreign policy during the first eight years of the New Deal Administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR). Influence on foreign policy of domestic recovery efforts from the Great Depression. FDR's comestic reforms. U.S. isolationist sentiments. Move toward a more assertive foreign policy in Europe & Asia. Aid to Allies. Entry into WWII. Paper Introduction: AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY (1933-1941) This research paper discusses the guiding principles of American foreign policy during the first eight years of the New Deal administration of President Franklin Roosevelt (FDR). During the early and mid-1930s, the formulation and implementation of United States foreign policy were decisively influenced by the imperatives of domestic recovery from the Great Depression and the preservation of an internal political consensus in favor of FDR's domestic reforms. Isolationist sentiment intensified in the mid-1930s and hindered FDR's efforts to mobilize internal support for a more assertive foreign policy vis-a-vis fascist aggression by Italy and Germany and external expansion by Japanese militarism. After 1936, domestic opposition to more forceful intervention by the United States in European and Asian affairs Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Dallek said that "Roosevelt was mute throughout the[Czech] crisis" and that "Hitler and Mussolini probably viewed Roosevelt'sappeals as gestures by a powerless man" (166). In June 1933 he wrecked the London WorldEconomic Conference by his 'bombshell' message to it in which he urged eachnation to cure its own internal economic ills. FDR The New Deal Years 1933-1937. Dallek said "he [FDR] did not think thatpublic opinion was ready for actions that were likely to bring the countryto the brink of war" (264). Dallek said polls asearly as 1938 showed that 84 percent of respondents supported embargoes onwar supplies to Tokyo (194). New York: Oxford UP, 1979. NewYork: Random House, 1986. The Dark Valley A Panorama of the 193 s.New York: Knopf, 2 . P. It imposed an embargoon arms sales to both sides, which had the effect of benefiting the forcesof Francisco Franco who received lavish arms supplies from Germany andItaly. In 1937,the United States had only the 17th ranking military in the world (Brandon514). Liberals of both parties spearheaded the effort in 1935 of theSenate Munitions Investigating Committee chaired by Senator Gerald Nye ofNorth Dakota to affix blame on American munitions makers and bankers forprecipitating American involvement in World War I. FDR As Provocateur. Herecognized, however, that most conservatives, Southern Democrats andnorthern Catholics, whose support he needed to pass his New Deal programs,were strongly anti-communist. Most observers believe, however, thatFDR was surprised that the Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor and was ableto destroy the American Pacific battle fleet. In the face of vigorous opposition in the Senate by Senatorssuch as William Borah, Burton Wheeler and Robert LaFollette, Jr. He sacrificed the alien scapegoat forthe domestic underdog" (28 ). Lindbergh. Prompted by Germany's entry into the Rhineland in spring 1936, itsabsorption of Austria in the spring of 1937 and the Japanese invasion ofnorthern China in 1937, Roosevelt, following his re-election in 1936, madehis Quarantine Speech in October 1937 calling on peace-loving nations tomake "a concerted effort at opposition" to the fascist powers; however,when public and Congressional opinion failed to support the tenor of hisremarks, he backtracked into evasions (Brandon 513). In a message to FDR on February 9, 1941,British Prime Minister Winston Churchill said "give us the tools and wewill finish the job" (Davis FDR The War 117). Berg saidthe America First Committee "seemed to attract men and women of all ages,political persuasions, and religions" (413). In May 1941 FDR declared a national emergency and told thenation that Nazi Germany threatened the security of the Western Hemisphere.On his orders the American Navy waged an undeclared war against German U-boats which resulted in a number of American-German naval encounters.Nevertheless, FDR continued to reject Churchill's pleas for direct Americaninvolvement in the European war. The United States confined itself tolodging a strong diplomatic protest after Japanese airmen sunk the Americangunboat Panay in the Yangtze River in December 1937. should end. Isolationism. Its investigationsplaced the administration on the defensive and resulted in Neutrality Actsunder which Americans were barred from selling arms or extending credits tobelligerents. and in thecountry by national hero Charles Lindbergh and the American First Committeewhich Lindbergh spearheaded through a series of nationwide radioaddresses, FDR was able to push through increases in defense budgets butpublic and Congressional opinion solidified against any further Americaninvolvement. Anxious to revive U.S.-Latin American trade,which declined 75 percent from 1929 levels, and to energize Latin Americangovernments to cooperate with the United States in the face of growingforeign threats, the United States at a series of Pan-American conferencesin the 193 s abjured the right to intervene militarily in the region(Dallek 62). The summer of 194 produced a dramaticacceleration in American apprehensions concerning the German and Japanesethreats to its security. AsAssistant Secretary of the Navy under President Woodrow Wilson, he hadearly favored American entry into World War I. Many perceptive observers such as Kennanquestioned whether Roosevelt's policy toward Japan was not undulyprovocative if he wished to avoid war with Nippon (82). Amidst fears thatGermany, after defeating France and Britain, would achieve naval and airsupremacy in the North Atlantic, FDR was able to circumvent and temperisolationist opposition in Congress by persuading Willkie to support anexecutive agreement in August 194 under which the United Statestransferred 5 overage destroyers to Britain in exchange for bases in theWestern Hemisphere. Pro-intervention in Europesentiment was, on the other hand, largely confined to an East Coast, urbanelite. Davis, Kenneth S. FDR avoided intervening militarily in the 1933Cuban revolution against dictator Gerardo Machado even though the UnitedStates retained the right to do so under the 19 3 Platt Amendment.According to Dallek, FDR was then preoccupied with domestic affairs andrelied on his confidante, Sumner Welles, to negotiate a power-sharingarrangement in Cuba (62). Polls taken in March 1941 showedthat Americans were 5 -4 percent against entering the war in Europe unlessGermany or Italy attacked the United States and 5 -41 against usingAmerican warships to escort merchantmen across the Atlantic to England(Dallek 259). The domestic economic crisis of the 193 s ledPresident Roosevelt to give secondary priority to international affairs andthe rising isolationism he encountered among the American public and inCongress stymied efforts by him to counter the threats posed by the Axispowers to the United States in the late 193 s. Dallek said "starvation, unemployment, business and financialcollapse made foreign relations a secondary concern" (23). All Aid Short of War. Putnam's Sons,1998. Anti-war sentiment was exceptionally broad-based. Chicago:U of Chicago P, expanded ed., 1984.----------------------- 12 Goldman said the "the liberal of the late Thirties was pushedtoward isolationism by the deep-seated disillusionment with Wilsonianism"(376). 1933-1937 Introduction. you haven't got the votes and that's all there is to it"(Dallek 192). However, despite hisinternationalist proclivities, FDR was preoccupied during his first termwith the need to cope with the devastatingly adverse effects of the GreatDepression. The final ban on their purchase of crude oil, overhalf of which had come from the United States, in late July 1941 convincedthe Japanese government that it had no alternative but to start hostilitiesagainst the West and seize the oil and other raw materials of SoutheastAsia. New York: Knopf,1965. FDR became increasingly concerned during 1935 and 1936 at the threatposed by fascist Italy and Nazi Germany to world peace. Brandon, Piers. According to Dallek, "domestic political problemsin the summer of 1937 had made Roosevelt particularly reluctant to riskanything in foreign affairs" (147). He decided to normalizerelations with the Soviet Union in November 1933 only after a poll revealedthat 63 percent of the nation's newspaper editors favored it (Dallek 79). During the early and mid-193 s, theformulation and implementation of United States foreign policy weredecisively influenced by the imperatives of domestic recovery from theGreat Depression and the preservation of an internal political consensus infavor of FDR's domestic reforms. In his second term FDR was preoccupied with his court-packing fightand overcoming growing political opposition to his New Deal programs, whichintensified during the 1937-1938 recession and Republican gains in the 1938Congressional elections. American Diplomacy, 19 -195 . . Isolationist sentiment intensified in themid-193 s and hindered FDR's efforts to mobilize internal support for amore assertive foreign policy vis-a-vis fascist aggression by Italy andGermany and external expansion by Japanese militarism. Goldman, Eric F. It likewise remainedneutral in the Spanish Civil War which began in 1936. Dueto his patrician upbringing and education, FDR was a Europhile. Franklin D. Isolationist sentiment remained, however, very strong up until thetime of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Dallek, Robert. FDR succeeded in 1939 in securing revision of theNeutrality Laws to permit sales of war materials to American allies on acash and carry basis but otherwise failed to obtain discretionary authorityto aid the Allies because, as Vice President Jack Garner told him, "well,Captain, . Events included the fall of Norway, Denmark andFrance, the air battle for Britain of September 194 , the takeover by theJapanese of Vichy France's air bases in Indochina and the closing by theBritish in response to Japanese pressure of the Burma Road, China's onlyaccess route to the West. New York: G. 1938-1941 Even though FDR and his closest advisers became increasinglyconcerned that Adolf Hitler's takeovers and eventually overt aggressionagainst Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland represented a serious menace tothe United States, their hands were largely tied by the continuing strengthof domestic isolationist sentiment during the years 1938 and 1939. Rendezvous With Destiny. To defeat the Depression at home hestood aloof from the foreign fray. Scott. FDR distanced himselffrom British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's appeasement policy towardHitler and Benito Mussolini, but had little to offer as an alternativeother than moral admonitions and appeals to the dictators to avoiddisturbing the peace. The draft was renewed thatmonth by the House of Representatives by only a single vote. Nevertheless, FDR graduallytightened embargoes on the purchase by the Japanese of oil and scrap metalin the United States. His efforts tosecure international disagreement on disarmament had by that time failed.The administration remained passive, and in particular failed to preventcritical American oil exports to Italy then bent on the conquest ofEthiopia in defiance of League of Nations resolutions. He was much moreinterested in raising domestic commodity prices and making Americanexports, which had declined by 69 percent since 1929, more competitive inworld markets by devaluing the dollar (Brandon 99). . The isolationist movement included not only anti-League conservatives, but also pacifists and many liberals andprogressives. After 1936, domesticopposition to more forceful intervention by the United States in Europeanand Asian affairs acted as a severe constraint on the administration whileat the same time channeling much of its foreign policy into relativelyineffective and at times devious directions. In this area, FDR lagged behind public opinion. Presidents TheodoreRoosevelt, Wilson and Calvin Coolidge had intervened militarily on a numberof occasions in Central American and Caribbean nations to restore order andprotect American interests. Armspurchases for cash by the British were greatly accelerated but by thespring of 1941 it was apparent that Britain could no longer afford to paycash for munitions and planes. Public opinion polls showed that at the time war broke out in Europein September 1939, 94 percent of Americans wished to avoid involvement(Brandon 516-517). As the Nazi threat came to beperceived by FDR as more imminent and threatening to American securityinterests, American foreign policy in fits and starts moved toward moremilitant opposition to fascist expansionism; however, FDR's keen instinctsfor fathoming the mood of the American electorate and Congress caused theadministration to move cautiously toward a more assertive foreign policy inboth Europe and Asia. Roosevelt himself was engaged in a hard fought campaign for a thirdterm in 194 . FDR wassuccessful with Willkie's assistance in pushing his Lend-Lease programthrough Congress in March 1941 but Senator Wheeler said it "would plowunder every American boy" (Dallek 259). Davissaid the domestic reaction to these moves was "overwhelmingly one ofapproval" (FDR The New Deal 194). After Japanrenounced in December 1934 the limitations on fleet construction set by the1921 Washington Naval Treaty, FDR, a naval enthusiast, was able to embarkupon an ambitious naval rearmament program, but the Army remained too smallto be much of a factor in foreign relations. Nevertheless, he confided to Churchill at theAtlantic Charter Conference in Placentia Bay (near Newfoundland, Canada) inAugust 1941 that "he would look for an 'incident' which would justify himin opening hostilities against Germany" (285). Roosevelt And American ForeignPolicy 1932-1945. Conclusion The 193 s witnessed a gradual sea change in American foreign policyaway from its traditional uninvolvement with the balance of power in Europeand the Far East and toward the assumption by the United States of a majorrole in world affairs. Kennan, George F. By the mid-193 s, most Americans were profoundlydisillusioned with the results of World War I and determined to avoidfuture European wars. Dallek noted that FDR was "the most cosmopolitanAmerican to enter the White House since John Quincy Adams in 1825" (3). FDR disingenously told the nation in early November 194 "your boysare not going to be sent into any foreign wars" (Dallek 25 ). Davis, Kenneth S. After, however, his re-election in 194 FDR's position towardJapanese incursions in China and Southeast Asia noticeably hardened.Negotiations continued with the Japanese right up to the eve of the PearlHarbor attack because the American military advised FDR that more time wasneeded to remedy American military weaknesses in the Far East, such as bysending B-17 bombers to the Philippines. Others such asFleming argue that FDR maneuvered the Japanese into firing the first shotand thereby enabled the United States to enter the war against both Japanand Germany with full public support. After winning a convincing but hard fought victory over challengerWendell Willkie, FDR told the nation in his December 29, 194 firesidechat: "we must be the arsenal of democracy" (Davis FDR The War 83). Good Neighbor Policy toward Latin America. The Japanese made the Americandecision to enter the war easy by attacking American territory (Hawaii andthe Philippines); and Hitler further eased FDR's political dilemma bydeclaring war on the United States. FDR The War President 194 -1943. FDR sense of realism told him thatthe Republican policy of not recognizing Communist U.S.S.R. In 1938 FDR told hisspeechwriter Samuel Rosenman that it was "a terrible thing to look overyour shoulder when you are trying to lead-to find no one there" (Fleming67). It had a substantial surface fleet, but not one large enough to copewith naval threats in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Foreign Economic Policy. FDR took the UnitedStates off the gold standard in April 1933 (which eventually led to a 41percent decline in the dollar). The New Dealers' War. As Democratic VicePresidential candidate in 192 , he was closely associated with Wilson'sunsuccessful effort to have the United States ratify the Treaty ofVersailles and join the League of Nations. Fleming, Thomas. The general posture of the administration was summarized byBrandon as follows: "Roosevelt needed the support of the isolationists tocarry through the New Deal program. New York: PerseusBooks, 2 1. FDR resisted Western European pressures onthe United States to reduce further payments of World War I war debts, toengage in various international currency stabilization schemes and tomaintain a high foreign exchange value for the dollar. Bipartisan support for his policy of 'all aid toBritain' short of war was strengthened by FDR's appointment of RepublicansHenry Stimson and Frank Knox as Secretaries of War and the Navy,respectively. He, however, responded tothat challenge by increasing American aid to the Allies and eventually,with the help of some behind the scenes machinations of questionablemorality and some stupid decisions of Japanese and Germany leaders, tocause the United States to enter World War II as a united nation. Recognition of the Soviet Union. New York:Random House, 2 . Except for its entry into World War I, the UnitedStates had avoided entangling alliances and involvement outside the WesternHemisphere since 1787. Works Cited Berg, A. AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY (1933-1941) This research paper discusses the guiding principles of Americanforeign policy during the first eight years of the New Deal administrationof President Franklin Roosevelt (FDR). This led to major escalationin the level of American armed assistance to the British. Up until 194 , FDR believed, according to Dallek,that "a conflict with Japan would not only reduce Anglo-American power todefeat Berlin, it would also jeopardize the President's political future"(239). He shaped public opinion in favor ofrecognition by emphasizing the prospects for expanding American exports tothe Soviet Union and the utility of the Russians as a counterweight toJapanese ambitions in Manchuria and North China. He supported passage of theJohnson Act of 1934 which prevented the United States from extending creditto nations which failed to pay their war debts to the United States. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.