Foreign Policy Changes

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Pages: 4

How and why did the goals of the United States foreign policy change from the time of the First World War (1918) to the end of the Korean War (1953)

Wars caused foreign policy to change and overtime it develops and becomes better and more efficient. In addition, as time passes different viewpoints are seen leading to change of goals in foreign policy. During the thirty five years between the end of the First World War in 1918 and the end of the Korean War in 1953, American foreign policy changed remarkably from working with other countries to avoid war and intervention, getting involved to protect ourselves and world wide peace, then seeing the country’s duty as a world super power to step in and assist other nations in need, and finally
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World War I was called “the war to end all wars” because ideally war was so bad that countries would not want to have war again. Due to this fear Woodrow Wilson proposed the Fourteen Points during the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. He stated that a general association of nations must be formed to make an alliance or association that would assure that countries remain independent and to promise that borders will not be invaded for all countries through mutual guarantees. This led to the idea of a super-national governing body. Just like in America if two states got into a dispute, they would battle it out in court rather than go to war, so too should two countries. This idea is also known as the League of Nations. By having this it would almost completely eliminate war. As presented in Document B, in response to Woodrow Wilson, Senator Cabot Lodge Sr. gave a speech to the United State Senate Committee on Foreign Relations just after the war ended on August 12, 1919. Senator Lodge was a Republican while Wilson was a Democrat. In his speech, Senator Lodge states that America needs to put itself first rather than intervening and America should only have allegiance to itself rather than to other countries by not intervening in their wars. Next, Document C shows …show more content…
As seen in Document D, a message from the Secretary of State Henry Stimson directed to the Japanese government. Henry Stimson, a Republican directed this to the Japanese after their invasion of Manchuria on January 7, 1932. He states that it is America’s duty to alert them that as a country we cannot support any agreement or action that would diminish the rights of the citizens of the United States or China. Then in Document F, President Franklin Roosevelt, a Democrat, gives a speech in Chicago, on October 5, 1937. He states that many countries are not law abiding and are ignoring the treaties set in place. He compares this to an epidemic spreading and the only way to stop it is for everyone to be adhered to the law. Through these two documents, America is proving to be a world power and proving to have the ability to step in when need to protect the