United States Foreign Policy in the Interwar Period, 1918-1941: The Golden Age of American Diplomatic and Military Complacency (Praeger Studies of Foreign Policies of the Great Powers)

This study presents an in-depth survey of the principal policies and personalities of American diplomacy of the era, together with a discussion of recent historiography in the field. For two decades between the two world wars, America pursued a foreign policy course that was, according to Rhodes, shortsighted and self-centered. Believing World War I had been an aberration, Americans na Dively signed disarmament treaties and a pact renouncing war, while eschewing such inconveniences as enforcement machinery or participation in international organizations. Smug moral superiority, a penurious desire to save money, and naivete ultimately led to the neglect of America's armed forces even as potential rivals were arming themselves to the teeth. In contrast to the dynamic drive of the New Deal in domestic policy, foreign policy under Franklin D. Roosevelt was often characterized by a lack of clarity and, reflecting Roosevelt's fear of isolationists and pacifists, by presidential explanations that were frequently evasive, incomplete, or deliberately misleading. One of the period's few successes was the bipartisan Good Neighbor policy, which proved far-sighted commercially and strategically. Rhodes praises Cordell Hull as the outstanding secretary of state of the time, whose judgment was often more on target than others in the State Department and the executive branch

This study presents an in-depth survey of the principal policies and personalities of American diplomacy of the era, together with a discussion of recent historiography in the field. For two decades between the two world wars, America pursued a foreign policy course that was, according to Rhodes, shortsighted and self-centered. Believing World War I had been an aberration, Americans na^Dively signed disarmament treaties and a pact renouncing war, while eschewing such inconveniences as enforcement machinery or participation in international organizations. Smug moral superiority, a penurious desire to save money, and naíveté ultimately led to the neglect of America's armed forces even as potential rivals were arming themselves to the teeth.

In contrast to the dynamic drive of the New Deal in domestic policy, foreign policy under Franklin D. Roosevelt was often characterized by a lack of clarity and, reflecting Roosevelt's fear of isolationists and pacifists, by presidential explanations that were frequently evasive, incomplete, or deliberately misleading. One of the period's few successes was the bipartisan Good Neighbor policy, which proved far-sighted commercially and strategically. Rhodes praises Cordell Hull as the outstanding secretary of state of the time, whose judgment was often more on target than others in the State Department and the executive branch.

Contents......Page 6 1. United States Foreign Policy in the Interwar Period: A Historiographical Overview......Page 8 2. Wilson and Democratic Peacemaking: A Tragic Beginning to the Interwar Era......Page 20 3. Harding, Hughes, and Republican Moral Diplomacy......Page 46 4. Foreign Policy Under Coolidge and Kellogg: A Relative Bed of Roses......Page 64 5. Foreign Policy Under Hoover and Stimson: A Bed of Pain......Page 80 6. Early New Deal Foreign Policy: The Limits of Improvisation......Page 98 7. The Good Neighbor Policy: A Bipartisan Accomplishment......Page 120 8. Congressional Neutrality: Roosevelt, the British, and Bankers as Performing Circus Animals......Page 134 9. The Shifting of the Foreign Policy Momentum......Page 154 10. Aid to Britain Short of War......Page 172 11. Japan and the United States Miscalculate......Page 190 Selected Bibliography......Page 224 C......Page 232 H......Page 233 K......Page 234 N......Page 235 S......Page 236 Y......Page 237 SCOTT (Copy 2): From the John Holmes Library collection