U.S. foreign policy

U.S. foreign policy covers the foreign relations and diplomacy of the United States since 1775.

1945-1973: Cold War

see Cold War

Truman: 1945-53

Truman had no knowledge or interest in foreign policy before becoming president, and depended on the State Department for foreign policy advice. Truman shifted from FDR's détente to containment as soon as Dean Acheson convinced him the Soviet Union was a long-term threat to American interests. They viewed communism as a secular, millennial religion that informed the Kremlin's worldview and actions and made it the chief threat to American security, liberty, and world peace. They rejected the moral equivalence of democratic and Communist governments and concluded that until the regime in Moscow changed only American and Allied strength could curb the Soviets. Following Acheson's advice, Truman in 1947 announced the Truman Doctrine of containing Communist expansion by furnishing military and economic American aid to Europe and Asia, and particularly to Greece and Turkey. He followed up with the Marshall Plan, which was enacted into law as the European Recovery Program (ERP) and pumped $12.4 into the European economy, forcing the breakdown of old barriers and encouraging modernization along American lines. On May 14, 1948, Truman announced recognition of the new state of Israel, making the United States the first major power to do so.

After his surprise reelection in 1948, Truman brought in Dean Acheson as Secretary of State, and promoted the Point Four program of aid to underdeveloped countries. The policy of containing Communism was operationalized by the creation, in 1949, of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to oversee the integration of the military forces of its member nations in Western Europe and North America. A further step was taken in 1951 with the establishment of the Mutual Security Agency to coordinate U.S. economic, technical and military aid abroad.

The Korean War began at the end of June 1950 when North Korea, a Communist country, invaded South Korea, which was under U.S. protection. Without consulting Congress Truman ordered General Douglas MacArthur to use all American forces to resist the invasion. Truman then received approval from the United Nations, which the Soviets were boycotting. UN forces managed to cling to a toehold in Korea, as the North Koreans outran their supply system. A counterattack at Inchon destroyed the invasion army, and the UN forces captured most of North Korea on their way to the Yalu River, Korea's northern border with China. Truman defined the war goal as rollback of Communism and reunification of the country under UN auspices. China intervened unexpectedly, drove the UN forces all the way back to South Korea. The fighting stabilized close to the original 38th parallel that had divided North and South. MacArthur wanted to continue the rollback strategy but Truman arrived at a new policy of containment, allowing North Korea to persist. Truman's dismissal of General Douglas MacArthur in April 1951 sparked a violent debate on U.S. Far Eastern policy, as Truman took the blame for a high-cost stalemate with 37,000 Americans killed and over 100,000 wounded.

Truman fired his ineffective defense secretary Louis Johnson, and brought back George Marshall. The top-secret NSC-68 of 1950 policy paper was the grounds for escalating the Cold War, especially in terms of tripling spending on rearmament and building the hydrogen bomb. The integration of European defense was given new impetus by continued U.S. support of NATO, under the command of General Eisenhower.

See also

• Diplomacy, U.S., Timeline

• 9-11 Attack
• Afghanistan War (1978-92)
• American Revolution, 1775-1783
• Berlin Wall, 1961-89
• Central Intelligence Agency
• Cold War, 1947-89
• Confederate States of America
• Containment
• Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962
• Detente
• Diplomacy, U.S., Timeline
• Eisenhower Doctrine, 1957
• Embargo of 1807
• Fourteen Points, 1918
• Gulf War, 1990-91
• Iraq War, 2003+
• Isolationism
• Jay Treaty, 1794
• Korean War, 1950-53
• Lend Lease, 1941-45
• List of scholarly journals in international relations
• Louisiana Purchase, 1803
• Manifest Destiny
• Marshall Plan, 1848-51
• McNary-Haugen Bill, 1920s; (never passed)
• Mexican-American War, 1846-48
• Monroe Doctrine, 1823+
• NATO, 1949+
• NSC-68, 1950
• Quasi-War, 1798-1800
• Reagan Doctrine
• Rollback
• Roosevelt Corollary, 1904
• Spanish American War, 1898
• Tariff, U.S. history
• U.S. Civil War
• United States State Department
• Versailles Treaty, 1919
• Vietnam War, 1965-73
• War of 1812, 1812-15
  • War of 1812, Causes
• Wilsonianism, 1914+
• World War I, 1917-18
• World War II, 1941-45
• Zimmerman Telegram, 1917

See also leaders

• Dean Acheson
• Jane Addams
• John Adams
• John Quincy Adams
• Charles A. Beard
• James G. Blaine
• John C. Calhoun
• Jimmy Carter
• Henry Clay
• Jesse Helms
• Herbert Hoover
• Harry Hopkins
• Edward M. House
• Thomas Jefferson
• Lyndon B. Johnson
• John F. Kennedy
• George Kennan
• Henry Kissinger
• James Monroe
• Richard Nixon
• James K. Polk
• Ronald Reagan
• Eleanor Roosevelt
• Franklin D. Roosevelt
• Theodore Roosevelt
• Josiah Strong
• Harry S. Truman
• Daniel Webster
• Wendell Willkie
• Woodrow Wilson

Bibliography

• Ambrose, Stephen E. Rise to Globalism, (1988), since 1945
• Bailey, Thomas A. Diplomatic History of the American People (1940), standard older textbook
• Beisner, Robert L. ed, American Foreign Relations since 1600: A Guide to the Literature (2003), 2 vol. 16,300 annotated entries evaluate every major book and scholarly article.
• Bemis, Samuel Flagg. A Diplomatic History of the United States (1952) old standard textbook
• Bemis, Samuel Flagg, and Grace Gardner Griffin. Guide to the Diplomatic History of the United States 1775-1921 (1935) bibliographies
• Brune, Lester H. Chronological History of U.S. Foreign Relations (2003), 1400 pages
• Burns, Richard Dean, ed. Guide to American Foreign Relations since 1700 (1983) highly detailed annotated bibliography
• DeConde, Alexander, Richard Dean Burns, Fredrik Logevall, and Louise B. Ketz, eds. Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy 3 vol (2001), 2200 pages; 120 long articles by specialists.
• DeConde, Alexander. A History of American Foreign Policy (1963) online edition
• Dobson, Alan P., and Steve Marsh. U.S. Foreign Policy since 1945. 160pp (2001) online edition
• Findling, John E. ed. Dictionary of American Diplomatic History 2nd ed. 1989. 700pp; 1200 short articles.
• Flanders, Stephen A, and Carl N. Flanders. Dictionary of American Foreign Affairs (1993) 835 pp, short articles
• Hogan, Michael J. ed. Paths to Power: The Historiography of American Foreign Relations to 1941 (2000) essays on main topics
• Hogan, Michael J. and Thomas G. Paterson, eds. Explaining the History of American Foreign Relations (1991) essays on historiography
• Jentleson, B.W. and Thomas G. Paterson, eds. Encyclopaedia of U.S. Foreign Relations, (4 vols., 1997)
• Lafeber, Walter. The American Age: United States Foreign Policy at Home and Abroad, 1750 to Present (2nd ed 1994) textbook; 884pp online edition
• Paterson, Thomas G. et al. American Foreign Relations (4th ed. 1995), recent textbook
• Scott, James A. After the End: Making U.S. Foreign Policy in the Post-Cold War World. (1998) 434pp online edition

Online resources

• Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS), 1861-1960, 372 volumes complete text. This series is the official documentary historical record of U.S. foreign policy decisions