Okay, so we are asked how and why the goals of the United States foreign policy changed from the end of World War One to the end of the Korean War. The biggest thing that I tried to discuss here was the transition from isolationist American outlook/love of peace to the goal of wiping out communism abroad by force. I decided to structure my essay chronologically, in order to show the progression from the post-World War One era to the buildup to World War Two and finally to the post-World War Two era. Here are some things you could have discussed:
Post-World War One:
- Wilson's Fourteen Points and his Article 10 (which Congress didn't like because they felt it deprived them of their war-declaring powers)
- Wilson's tour of the country/his attempt to sidestep Congress and appeal to the American public
- One good thing to touch on here is the American response to the Fourteen Points. Americans were generally supportive of such a peace agreement, for they liked that it was designed to avoid future war. This would reflect that both Wilson and the American public favored isolationism and peace
- Along the same lines of promoting peace, you could bring in Document C and talk about the Five-Power Treaty and Document A to display that, although the United States did have some foreign involvement and alliances, they were purely for the purposes of promoting international peace (proven by the fact that defense spending was remarkably low)
- Document B gives you a great opportunity to talk about Henry Cabot Lodge and the Lodge Reservations on Article 10. Lodge was the Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations, and he wanted to take a slow and cautious approach towards international arbitration, making sure that the United States wouldn't get sucked into war as it had in World War One.
- Overall the era was marked by isolationism and pacifism as a reaction to the buildup of power and spiral out of control that had occurred in 1914
Buildup to World War Two:
- The passage from embargo to cash-and-carry to lend lease (going from total isolation to semi-isolation to almost direct aggression)
- This is a good place to bring in the Tehran Conference (which was all about organizing a second front) and use Document G and the Four Policemen idea to show how FDR wanted to be involved, but didn't want to have to send in American troops
- You could also bring in Document F to show an increased sense of obligation for the Americans (I talked about FDR's analogy of lending your neighbor a hose when their house is on fire)
- This era still showed isolationist sentiment (through American reluctance to get directly involved) but showed the beginnings of a feeling of obligation to help fellow democracies like Britain and France. Such a sense of obligation was invoked by the rise of Fascism in Europe and Hitler's continued territorial expansion.
Post-World War Two:
- Truman Doctrine (1949) meant a free pass to get involved with any communist uprising anywhere on the globe
- Though the speech in Document H occurred in 1947, it still represents similar sentiment to that of the Truman Doctrine. It also shows the same sense of obligation of the buildup to World War Two, but this time, it was combined with a sense of personal urgency to stamp out communism.
- Document I shows the sense of urgency of the time, for it discusses the supposed goal of the Kremlin to dominate the world. It was this increasing threat throughout the developing world that sparked US involvement in crises such as Korea and Vietnam
- You could also talk about McCarthyism and the extreme anticommunist sentiment of the time, showing that the Americans increased spending because they all felt more personally threatened by communism than they had in the past by Hitler or the Kaiser.
So that pretty much sums up my thoughts! Let me know if y'all think I'm missing anything big.
Seems like you got the major points Annaliese. I personally put a bigger emphasizes on isolationism post-WWI and the idea of the Four Horsemen Roosevelt started championing during WWII.
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