History and Political Science
Since the World
War II ended the American foreign policy has shifted from being based on
Isolationism to being grounded on the basis of Interventionism. Before the
Second World War, United
States followed policies which prevented
them from taking actions to interfere or change the political or social climate
of other nations but only defend their homeland borders and firmly remain to be
self-sufficient and unconcerned with the rest of the world. The policies were
changed to being based on interventionism which is founded on the principle of
directly intervening in the affairs of other nations.
The change was
because of the American views that it was the most decent and had the proper
way of living and governing and hence it would take measures to guide other
nations towards the same direction. Initially, the nation was largely
non-interventionist state which preferred to focus on domestic affairs and
paying attention to economic policies abroad. The change occurred after the
cold world war whereby America
was forced to storm into the war when Japanese pilots bombed the naval base at
Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and this changed United States to be interventionist
state. The idea of communism and the threat of Soviet Union influenced every
foreign policy the United
States had adopted. A recovery program which
was passed by congress in 1948 send relief funds into Western Europe and this
created an influx of business in the United States.
America later
worked to liberate nations which are currently known as the third world. They
started practicing a policy of self-determination not seeking conquest or
economic control but instead instilling governments that were friendly. The United States through the United Nations intervened
into the war between the communist government of Korea
and the Republic of Korea since they saw that the Republic of Korea
needed help or else it would have been overrun. This war finally settled in
1953 and the borers were restored exactly as they were before the war broke.
In the conflict in
Vietnam which was started in 1945 when the Vietminh declared Vietnam
independent from France, The United States though had promised to accept the
results of the elections which were conducted in 1956 to unite the two separate
nations under one democratically elected official later in 1956 they ignored it
and provided weapons and training for the friend faction in Vietnam and sent
CIA Operatives to destabilize the Vietminh covertly. During the 1950s, the US government had supported a change in control
in Cuba
whereby the supporting revolution was led by Fidel Castro. When Castro came
into power, he severed all ties with the United States and became more open
about his socialist leanings.
Later, The United
States funded and trained troops which led a coup that attempted to wrest
control from Castro though it failed massively. John Blight said that the
relations between Castro’s government and America
were indirectly responsible for the alliance between Cuba
and the USSR.
President Harry S Truman (1945 to 1952) set before congress his domino theory which
showed that if one pertinent nation fell into communism, it would drag all its
neighbors together with it and that led to the Truman Doctrine in 1947, which
called for demolishing of communism. He said that they must assist free people
to work their own destines according to Shaver (16). Truman laid out is Point
IV Program in 1949 which intended to give technical aid to third world nations
and also aided formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization which
intended to counter the Soviet threat in
Western Europe.
President Dwight
D. Eisenhower, who was in power between 1952 and 1960 also propagated the
interventionist policies where in 1953 he used the CIA to stage coups and
overthrow unfriendly governments in Iran
and also Guatemala.
He helped to form the Southeast Asia Theory Organization after the fall of Vietnam from
French control to Vietminh control in 1954. He acknowledged that there were
background events and people involved in various aspects of American
Interventionism and hence it was necessary to review the interventionism and
look at different sides to debate against it. One of the issues was that
getting involved in the foreign affairs would remove the United States’
ability to decide on the matters to get involved with and would further lead to
devastations as it was argued by the early isolationists such as Hiram Johnson
and Henry Cabot Lodge. They further argued that having the growing importance
of International treaties, it was evident that enjoining foreign policies would
lead The United States to wars which were not related to domestic circumstances.
They did not see the need as to why US should waste money, equipment and risk
human life in defending other nations. They insisted that America’s real goal was not the containment of
communism but that the US
had no right to get involved into the internal politics of foreign nations and
hence that was not necessary in ensuring amicable trade agreements.
Throughout the
course of second World War, the United States spend many resources to support
other nations outside their domestic matters and hence in one way helped to
solve difficulties and conflicts and assisted the inferior nations to avoid
being overrun by other superior nations they were engaged in war with but also
in another way increased the period of war and loss of lifes among the rival
nations which they intervened to assist. For instance, in the case of Vietnam
conflict, the long period of conflict which took about twenty one years to be
resolved could have been averted if The United States had not hindered the 1956
elections through their aggression. Also in the civil war of three years in Korea for the American supremacy of democracy
against the communism of Russia
and China
led to great loss of life and change of borders of the two countries. The
intervention of US in internal politics of Cuba
led to rising of Castro into power and hence if they had not intervened, Castro
would not have had significant reasons to stand against the United States.
From the above
history about the emphases of the American foreign policy post the Second World
War, it is clear that intervention should be well reasoned and planned and if
it has less to do with the protecting of human rights of defending of innocents
from mistreatments and conflicts with cruel governments and regimes then it
should not be done. Before involvement in the internal matters of any nation as
the United States has been doing either to assist in the decision making of the
internal politics of the nation or to support in times of war and conflict with
other nations, they should evaluate the cost of the process in terms of how
long will it take to resolve the problem and the possible damages and risks to
the concerned nations they would cause if they intervene.
Other methods if
available should be adopted rather than offering support to rival nations of
equipment and training of their troops for war. They should intervene to
provide support in terms of signing of agreements between the nations and if
their intervention would cause more harm than reconciliation to the nations
then they should stay out of the matters.
The foreign policy
has changed since the end of the World War II in order help other nations to
resolve their conflicts and stabilize their economic status which then would
improve their relation with the United States and in return America would have
provided a way for the nation to be in good terms with it and hence engage in
trade agreements which then as it helps to improve the economy of the nation,
would also contribute to the adding value to the economy of the United States.
Reference
Brinkley A., Richard N., Current T., Williams H., and Freidel
F. American History: A Survey. New
York: McGraw-Hill, 2011
My dear friends we love you all. It has come to our attention that you struggle a lot to earn a living! We are sorry because of what you have gone through. We are ready to help yhttp://www.earnparttimejobs.com/index.php?id=4605897 http://www.earnparttimejobs.com/index.php?id=4605897 ou become rich by simply visiting http://www.earnparttimejobs.com/index.php?id=4605897.
My dear friends we love you all. It has come to our attention that you struggle a lot to earn a living! We are sorry because of what you have gone through. We are ready to help yhttp://www.earnparttimejobs.com/index.php?id=4605897 http://www.earnparttimejobs.com/index.php?id=4605897 ou become rich by simply visiting http://www.earnparttimejobs.com/index.php?id=4605897.
How to Earn $2,500 every month without Investment
through part time jobs?
You can earn $2,500 the very first month from data
entry jobs on internet. This is an easy work from home form filling
job. Work less than 1 hr daily. No investment. Open for anyone, worldwide. Please visit the website
http://www.earnparttimejobs.com/index.php?id=4605897
No comments:
Post a Comment