1900

History of U.S. Foreign Policy

Detente and SALT

• Detente was the foreign policy during the Nixon presidency
• A relaxation of tensions mainly to improve American-Chinese relations
• Also led to the Soviets pursuing diplomacy
• Effects: American-Soviet summit in May 1972. Eased tensions
• Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (two rounds)
• Reduces amount of vehicles of delivery

Vietnam

End of Cold War

Post WWII Internationalism

Isolationism

• Bush 41
• Middle East and Africa
• Iraq
• Iraq 2.0
• Improved re

• Began unofficially under Kennedy
• Gulf of Tonken
• Ho Chi Min trail
• Nixon
• Cambodia and Laos
• Public support (Tet Offensiv

• Internationalism: the idea that trade between nations creates prosperity and helps prevent war
• FDR supported internationalism, but most Americans did not because they feared another world war.
• After WWII Truman had to decide whether to withdraw from international affairs, or try to stop the spread of communism which required constant involvement in Europe.
• Truman Doctrine (1947): The U.S. must intervene anywhere the democracy is overthrown by totalitarian forces.

• Most Americans believed that the U.S. should stay out of the affairs of other countries and become isolated because...
• Americans did not want more soldiers dying in wars overseas
• They were afraid of the costs of war
• Americans thought it would be better if they stayed out of other countries problems
• How did the U.S. encourage isolationism?
• Fordney-McCumber Tariff: A tax on foreign goods. This caused foreign governments to put taxes on American goods as retaliation.
• Reduced Immigration

1900

1930

1950

1980

2014

Containment

Reagan Rearmament

Arms Race

Used to prevent the spread of communism abroad

• was a response to a series of moves by the Soviet Union to enlarge communist influence in Eastern Europe, China, Korea, and Vietnam
• Truman was first president to use it
• funded Greek and Turkish governments to rebuild after WWII (didn't want communist influence overcome weak countries)
• Middle ground between detente and rollback
• NATO established, "quarantined" the Soviet government

• Detente ended with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
• Massive military spending (deficit)
• El Salvador
• Nicaragua
• Afghanistan
• Grenada

• The struggle for weapons superiority between the U.S. and the Soviet Union
• Cuban Missile Crisis
• Effects: USSR would remove missiles in Cuba and U.S. would remove missiles in Turkey.
• Crisis lead to increased arms buildup and tensions