United States, foreign policy, world peace, good neighbour policy, Roosevelt, cold war, Truman doctrine, war in Korea, Eisenhower's foreign policy, USA, Europe
A period of political isolation intervened between the end of WWI and the entrance of the US into WWII. In the 1930s new threats to world peace appeared through Japan's invasion of China; Italy's invasion of Ethiopia; the Spanish Civil War; Germany's occupation of Austria; and aggression by Hitler's Germany. F.D. Roosevelt recognized the Americans' desire to stay out of the quarrels of other nations. He adopted the Neutrality Acts (Acts of 1935, 36, 37, 39 designed to prevent actions [selling weapons to Europe for example] which might push the US into war).
[...] In 1950: North Korea attacked South Korea. The invasion had been provoked by bombings by SK. For Truman, failure to act would encourage Communist leaders to trample on nations ‘closer to our own shores'. The US presented a resolution before the UN Security Council condemning NK for its ‘unprovoked aggression'. The Security Council called on UN members to ‘furnish such assistance to the Republic of Korea as may be necessary to repel the armed attack and to restore international peace and security in the area'. [...]
[...] It started as an answer to a specific crisis; it became a principle for foreign policy. Truman declared that the US should ‘support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures. The US must provide assistance to countries resisting against communism in Europe. The Truman Doctrine marked the beginning of a contest which Bernard Baruch (government advisor) labelled ‘cold war'. It was an ideological struggle for world power and influence between East and West. [...]
[...] The ‘good-neighbour policy' epitomized the official discourse of foreign policy. After WWII, the US did intervene in Latin America to ‘protect' the western hemisphere from communist threats (Guatemala, Nicaragua, Cuba It also got involved in Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines, the Middle East I. The Cold War Origins and definition of the ‘cold war' After WWII, east – west relations were shaped by: long and tense negotiations over the division of Europe and the character of the regimes that would govern postwar European states [the division of Europe was based on spheres of influence]. [...]
[...] In July 1953, a ceasefire was finally reached. Korea was divided with a demilitarised zone separating the forces. The war cost the US 33,000 deaths and 103,000 wounded and missing. South Korean casualties were about 1 million, and North Korean and Chinese casualties, an estimated 1.5 million. Arms race American intelligence in September 1949 found evidence that the Soviets had set off an atomic explosion. Consequence: the discovery of the Russian bomb provoked a revision of the strategic balance of powers in the world, causing Truman in 1950 to order the construction of a hydrogen bomb. [...]
[...] In 1928, Hoover allowed publications of the Clark Memorandum which recognized that the US had no right to intervene militarily in Latin America. The Memorandum denied the Monroe Doctrine. (But it did not abandon intervention.) However, this move towards an improvement of relations did not prevent the US from intervening in China, Honduras and Panama in 1925 to protect its interests. The marines left Nicaragua in 1925, but returned in 1926. Rebellion against the US military occupation of the country from 1926 to 1933. Sandino (leader of the nationalist movement) was killed by the National Guard (created and backed by the US). [...]
APA Style reference
For your bibliographyOnline reading
with our online readerContent validated
by our reading committee
