Why did America expand overseas in the 1890s?

Discuss the changes in, actions of, and results of American foreign policy from 1890 to 1901.

    The decade of the 1890s marks a diplomatic watershed in American history. During that period the United States embarked upon a very assertive expansionist policy that led to the nation becoming an imperialist power by 1900. The reasons for this change from an essentially low-key, isolationist foreign policy stance to an aggressive involvement in world affairs involved fundamental changes in the American economy and the attitudes of the American people.

    The industrial revolution of the last quarter of the 19th century was the primary factor in the shifting foreign policy. As the nation became more industrialized it began to look overseas for new markets for its manufactured goods and for new sources of raw materials to feed the growing industrial system. To protect these foreign markets and raw materials the United States began to expand its power and influence overseas through the acquisition of trading centers, naval stations, and coaling ports. Indeed one of the major differences between the expansion of the 1890s and previous decades was that the nation did not see these new territories as potential states to add to the nation, but as spheres of influence in the aid of foreign trade.

    Two other elements entered the expansionist/imperialist equation. One was the closing of the American frontier in1890. When the Census report of that year proclaimed that there was no more frontier it meant that the nation could no longer pursue its twin goals of territorial expansion and isolation from world affairs. One or the other would have to be abandoned since there was no more contiguous territory to annex. The expansionist impulse proved stronger than the isolationist one and the nation began acquire an overseas empire. A second factor was the desire to spread the Christian gospel abroad, which meant securing an opening for American missionaries overseas. "Militant" Christianity reinforced the mood of American expansionism.

    A classic example of the intertwining of economic and religious impulses was United States' annexation of Hawaii. The first Americans to settle in Hawaii were Christian missionaries whose families remained and exerted a growing influence over the Hawaiian economy. By 1890 American economic and religious interests in the island kingdom were a permanent feature of the society. When the McKinley tariff bill of 1890 sought to stimulate the American sugar beet industry by placing a duty on imported sugar and giving a two cent a pound bonus for domestically grown sugar, the American-owned sugar companies faced a serious economic problem.

    From the standpoint of the American sugar companies in Hawaii the answer to their economc problem was simple: have Hawaii annexed by the United States so that Hawaiian sugar was domestic, not foreign grown. The flaw in that solution was that the Hawaiian people had no desire to become American. This popular aversion to annexation was reflected in the refusal of the Hawaiian leader, Queen Liliuokalani, to request an American take-over. The sugar company executives, with the timely assistance of a contingent of American marines who marched through Honolulu to "protect American lives and property," simply staged a political coup and asked for annexation. After President Cleveland refused, President McKinley acquiesced in 1898.

    America's desire to extend its influence beyond its borders was not limited to overt acts of annexation. In the case of a boundary dispute between Venezuela and British Guiana, United States' action took the form of a virtual diplomatic ultimatum to England, insisting that Britain send no troops to press its boundary claims. The United States would set up a boundary commission to arbitrate the dispute and determine the legitimate boundaries. After initially declining American "good offices," Great Britain accepted after U.S. Secretary of State Olney asserted that the United States was "practically sovereign" in this hemisphere and threatened military action. This rather high-handed maneuver reflected growing U.S. "power of persuasion."

    The most dramatic example of America's increasingly imperialistic foreign policy was the Spanish-American War of 1898. After having remained aloof from Cuba's previous attempts to throw off Spanish rule, the United States adopted a more interventionist policy when another Cuban revolt erupted in the 1890s. The American people were sympathetic with the Cuban cause and their rallying cry became "Cuba Libra," free Cuba. A sensationalist American press, led by New York City newspaper publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst, played up Spanish "atrocities" against the Cubans and ran front page stories about the Cuban "struggle for freedom." Hearst even sent a photographer to Cuba with instructions to send back pictures of Spanish atrocities.

    In addition to "yellow journalism," anti-Spanish emotions were stirred up by the publication of a private letter written by the Spanish ambassador to the United States, de Lome, considered insulting to President McKinley. Another event fanning the flames of war fever was the sinking of the American battleship "Maine" in Havana. Even though there was no proof of any Spanish involvement the rallying cry for pro-war forces became "Remember the Maine, and to hell with Spain." Even though Spain, trying to avoid confontation with the United States, responded favorably to a diplomatic ultimatum from the State Department, McKinley yielded to popular pressure for war and delivered a war message. Congress, sensing America's mood, declared war.

    Congress' declaration of war was soon accompanied by the Teller Resolution promising that the United States would not annex Cuba as a result of American intervention in its behalf. When the brief, successful war ( "a splendid little war" in the words of our Secretary of State) was ended, however, the Platt Amendment, incorporated in an American-Cuban treaty, accorded the United States the right to intervene in Cuba to "preserve its independence and maintain law and order." In effect this amendment gave the United States a quasi-protectorate over Cuba. And while the war did not lead to U.S. acquisition of Cuba it did result in United States' annexation of Puerto Rico and the Philippine Islands (acquired from Spain).

    The Philippinos expressed their aversion to becoming an American territory by engaging in a guerilla war against the U.S. when annexation was proposed. Indeed the Philippine insurrection against the U.S. was more costly in terms of money and American lives lost than had been the Spanish-American war. Nor was everyone in the U.S. in favor of Philippine annexation. Anti-imperialists claimed that the Philippines might involve us in a war in the Far East, and that forced annexation violated the traditional American belief in "government by the consent of the governed." American labor leaders joined in opposition to acquisition lest it lead to the introduction of cheap Philippine labor. American racism also rallied against acquiring "yellow-skinned"

    America's desire to extend its economic influence to the Far East through opening up trade with China led to yet another diplomatic confrontation. By 1900 China had succumbed to European imperialism in the form of spheres of influence each of the major European powers and Japan had established. Concerned that this would lead to those powers excluding the U.S. from the China trade the U.S. sent a round-robin diplomatic note to all of them asserting that it was the U.S. policy, and assumed it was theirs as well, to provide an "Open Door" for trade with China. This was followed by a second "Open Door" note affirming respect for the "territorial and administrative integrity" of China. Reluctantly most of the nations gave lukewarm assent.

Page 2

Describe the impact of World War I on civil liberties in the United States, noting specific laws and Supreme Court decisions.

    Civil liberties, those guarantees of individual freedoms in the Bill of Rights, were among the casualties of World War I. This was especially true for the first amendment rights of free speech and free press. Fearful that allowing any criticism of the government or American involvement in the war would impede military victory, President Wilson both encouraged private repression of any dissent and pushed legislation to suppress any criticism or dissent. This hysterical overreaction by the government was reflected by the state governments and the American people at large.

    One example of legislation impinging upon free speech and press was the Espionage Act. This law provided for up to twenty years imprisonment for obstructing recruitment or causing insubordination in the military. Thus one ran the risk of being prosecuted under this law merely for speaking out against the draft. One man who ran afoul of this act was convicted for printing a pamphlet denouncing the draft.

    When his conviction was appealed on the grounds that the Espionage Act was unconstitutional, the Supreme Court in the case of Schenck v. U. S. declared that the law did not violate the first amendment. The basis for this decision was that the government could outlaw any action which posed a "clear and present danger" to national security.

    The Trading with the Enemy Act was another law designed to suppress expression of any anti-war sentiment. While those provisions forbidding commerce with enemy nations "or their associates" and empowering the President to impose an embargo on any imports posed no real threat to individual freedoms, another section did. It empowered the President to establish censorship of materials passing between the United States and any foreign country. The Postmaster-General , Albert S. Burleson of Texas, demonstrated a lack of tolerance and judgment in establishing a capricious censorship. He banned, for example, three Socialist publications from the mails and suppressed all anti-British and pro-Irish publications.

    Far more dangerous a threat to civil liberties was the Sedition Act. This law provided for imprisonment for any "disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language" about the government, its policies, or the flag. In a time when almost any expression of disagreement with the government could be construed as "disloyal" or "abusive" this law had a "chilling effect" on free speech. And in the case of Abrams v. U.S. the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the act by applying what the Court called the "bad tendency" test. This left room for a very broad interpretation of the ambiguous phrase "bad tendency" as meaning anything in any way critical of the government.

    Nor was the administration content to curtail criticism or dissent merely through legislation by the federal government. President Wilson established a Committee on Public Information, under the leadership of George Creel, to sell the war to the American people and call into question the loyalty of anyone who dissented against the nation's involvement in the war. The committe used all branches of the media and the arts to launch an anti-German propaganda campaign and to portray the war in a positive fashion. This committee contributed to the hysterical reaction by the American people to anything that might be broadly construed as "disloyal."

    Examples of this overreaction by the American people to any dissent or"radical" criticism ranged from punishing individuals for crticizing the Red Cross and the Y.M.C.A. to ostracizing them for saying that war was contrary to the teachings of Christ to boycotting businesses of those with German surnames. One labor leader in Idaho who denounced U.S. participation in the war was summarily tied to a car, dragged through town until his kneecaps were torn off, and then publicly hanged - all without benefit of any formal charges or trial. The leader of the Socialist Party, Eugene V. Debs, was sentenced to ten years in prison for expressing his "revulsion" at the war as a way to increased profits for industry.

    Nor were state governments lagging in their desire to suppress any dissent or criticism of the war. Mounting hysteria led the legislatures of Montant and Missouri to pass criminal syndicalism acts prohibiting any language "calculated to bring the American Consitution, form of government, flag, or armed forces into disrespect or contempt." From an academic standpoint the ultimate expression of hysteria may have been the passage by several state legislatures of laws outlawing the teaching of the German language in any public schools.

Page 3

Compare and contrast the tenets and results of Theodore Roosevelt's New Nationalism and Woodrow Wilson's New Freedom.

   In the first two decades of the twentieth century the national political scene reflected a growing American belief in the ideas of the Progressive movement. This movement was concerned with fundamental social and economic reforms and gained in popularity under two presidents. Yet Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson espoused two different approaches to progressive reform. And each one was able to prevail upon congress to pass legislation in keeping with his own version of the progressive dream.

   Teddy Roosevelt, who became President upon the assassination of William McKinley, moved slowly but steadily toward a full-fledged progressive program in his two terms of office. Roosevelt believed that the federal government should be an active agent for reform and that the chief executive should play a lead role in demanding legislative action. For Roosevelt big business corporations were a fact of 20th century American economic life and were not intrinsically evil. Trusts could be either good or bad depending on whether they used their corporate power in the public interest or abused it. But to insure that big business did not misuse its power, Roosevelt insisted upon government regulation of business in the public interest.

   To insure that big corporations understood the necessity of accept- ing government regulation Roosevelt instituted a few anti-trust cases to demonstrate what the government could do if business refused to abide by regulation. Roosevelt chose to demonstrate the power of the federal government by bringing suit against the largest of the nation's trusts, J.P. Morgan's Northern Securities Holding Company, which controlled many of the nation's railroads. When the Supreme Court found in favor of the government and ordered the dissolution of Northern Securities a shock wave resounded throughout the corporate world. This legal victory paved the way for a few more successful anti-trust suits.

   Having demonstrated that businesses could either accept government regulation or be broken up by federal power, Roosevelt followed up his court victory over Morgan's control over the railroad system by pushing for passage of the Hepburn Act. This act strengthened the power of the Interstate Commerce Commission over railroads. And he followed that up with an executive action by which he created 150,000,000 acres of national forest lands which could not be exploited by private lumber companies. The National Forestry Service was to serve as a watchdog to help protect some of America's rich natural resources. Theodore Roosevelt, then, probably deserves the title of the United States first conservationist president.

   Roosevelt, however, was not primarily interested in "trust-busting" but in government regulation of businesses in the public interest. One example of Roosevelt's legislative success was congressional passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act. Roosevelt became alarmed at the lack of control over the food industry after he read a muckraking novel by Upton Sinclair, The Jungle. Sinclair had written the novel to stir America's conscience about the poor conditions of workers in meat-packing houses, but in describing some of the things which made their way into processed meats (human fingers, rats and rat droppings) the author turned sensitive stomachs, not hearts. The law was a first step in eliminating some of the worst practices of the industry.

   Roosevelt felt that the major role of the federal government through action by the President should be to act as an "impartial broker" between powerful interest groups. The chief executive, as the only official elected by all the people, ought to intervene as a disinterested champion of the public in any dispute, for example, between labor and managment which threatened the public welfare. One such action was Roosevelt's intervention in the 1902 anthracite coal strike which, as it dragged on, imperiled both the nation's economy and the public's supply of coal for home heating. Roosevelt threatened to have the army take over the mines if the mine owners and labor leaders could not reach an agreement. Shortly thereafter the strike ended.

   While Roosevelt believed that the proper role of the federal government in labor disputes was to pursue an even-handed course to curb both corporate and labor abuses, his action in the coal strike seemed to many business leaders to put him on the side of labor. After all, previous governmental interventions in labor disputes had always taken the form of using government troops to break strikes under the pretext of "protecting lives and property." Roosevelt's threat to end the strike by the using federal troops to work the mines unless management and labor came to an agreement appeared to corporate executives to be pro-labor and earned Roosevelt business enmity.

   After deciding not to seek reelection in 1908, Roosevelt became increasingly unhappy over the way his hand-picked successor, William Howard Taft, seemed to be ignoring or opposing progressive programs and decided to seek the presidency again in 1912. After being rejected by the Republican nominating convention in favor of Taft, Roosevelt became the candidate of the newly-emergent Progressive party. His campaign for a progressive program of New Nationalism, however, ran into stiff opposition from his Democratic opponent who also ran on a progressive platform of New Freedom. With the Republican party split Wilson was the victor. But more significantly the two progressive candidates captured 75% of the popular vote. Progressivism held sway.

   Woodrow Wilson's New Freedom looked to the destruction of all trusts to promote economic competition and permit small businesses once again to flourish. While the federal government was to use its power on a one time basis to bust all trusts, the federal government was to have no role in regulating business. Any regulation would have to be done by state governments. This contrasted markedly with Roosevelt's New Nationalism which called for an even stronger role for the president and the federal government in regulating the economy and curbing the abuses of corporate power. New Freedom and New Nationalism differed primarily, then, in their views of federal governmental power. Roosevelt wanted to use it while Wilson did not.

   After successfully pushing for a few measures of New Freedom, such as the Clayton Anti-Trust Act, which prohibited all inter-locking directorates and all price-fixing, Wilson began to see that his programs were ineffective in achieving his reform goals. So in the second phase of his New Freedom, roughly in his second term, Wilson increasingly modified his approach so that it became more like Roosevelt's New Nationalism. Wilson, for example pushed for creation of a Federal Trade Commission, a federal agency which would regulate trade on a continuous basis. He also secured passage of the Federal Reserve Act which created a federal agency to serve as economic watch dog and regulator of the banking industry.

   Perhaps Wilson's most significant legislative program was passage of a graduated federal income tax. This measure, which can be used by the government as a peaceful method of income redistribution, most certainly involved the federal government in the economy on a continuing basis, and, along with the Federal Reserve System, comprises a major step in governmental regulation of the economy. Wilson's changing domestic legislative program demonstrated his flexibility in blending features of New Freedom and New Nationalism. This intermixing of the two competing doctrines of progressivism was the culmination of the progressive movement of the early 20th century.

Page 4

Discuss the changes in, actions of, and results of American foreign policy from 1921 to 1941.

    During the decade of the 1920s, following United States' involvement in World War I, the basic American foreign policy stance was one of irresponsibility - irresponsible in the sense of not being willing to accept any responbility for preserving world peace. While the nation's leaders did not refuse to negotiate treaties with foreign powers. they refused any commitment that would require United States' action overseas. Nor did the American government accept any responsibility for international economic order.

   An illustration of American refusal to act responsibly in international economic affairs was the failure to accept the fact that the only way the World War I allies could make money to pay back their war debts was by selling goods to the United States. While preventing sales of materials to the United States through the highest protective tariffs in the nation's history, the government demanded full and timely repayment of the war debts. This stubborn refusal to acknowledge the relationship between tariffs and war debts was epitomized by President Coolidge's classic statement "They hired the money, didn't they?" This attitude embittered America's former allies.

   The United States' policy toward the Soviet Union also reflected a rather irresponsible, "head-in-the sand" stance. Following the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, the United States refused because of moral disapproval to recognize the Communist government that was in power. Diplomatic recognition does not denote approval of a regime, but simply the fact of its existence. A country can hardly have any influence on a nation whose government it refuses to acknowledge. Yet throughout the 1920s no diplomatic ties existed between the two nations. It was not until 1933 that the United States formally recognized the Soviet Union and that action did not signify approval or cordial relationships.

   The United States took the diplomatic initiative in calling for the Washington Conference of 1920-21 to head off a naval arms race in the Pacific lead by an increasingly aggressive Japan. That conference resulted in several treaties being signed. By the terms of the 5-Power treaty the U.S., Britain, France, Italy, and Japan agreed to limit the construction of capital ships. A Nine-Power treaty guaranteed China's independence and territorial integrity, thus reaffirming the "Open Door" policy. The drawback was that none of the treaties required the signatory members to take any action in the event of a violation of the treaty. The United States would sign treaties provided it did not have to accept any responsiblity for their enforcement.

    Perhaps the most dramatic expression of irresponbility in foreign policy was the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1929. This treaty, originally proposed as a bilateral defense treaty between France and U.S., was extended to include all nations that would agree to its primary pledge to "outlaw war as an instrument of national policy." Sixty-two nations, including the United States, eventually signed this treaty to outlaw war. But once again the treaty provided no sanctions against any nation which violated it, except the moral force of world opinion. It was, in the words of one diplomat, "an international kiss" - a nice but meaningless gesture. The United States certainly had no monopoly on irresponsibility in foreign policy.

   With a new decade American foreign policy shifted from simple irresponsibility to outright determined isolationism. The reasons for this rapid movement toward trying to isolate the nation from any involvement overseas were the severe economic depression of the decade and the emergence of aggressive, militaristic regimes in Europe and the Far East. The nation was too absorbed in trying to solve its own economic problems to have the time or energy to worry about world affairs. And memories of American involvement in World War I were still vivid enough the make the nation wary of any approaching war overseas.

   An example of American inaction in the face of violations of the Nine-Power treaty and the Kellogg-Briand pact occurred in 1931 when Japanese troops invaded Manchuria, a northeastern province of China, and established a military governement there. After refusing to take any military action or impose any economic sanctions, the United States finally decided that it would not recognize the military regime in Manchuria (renamed Manchukuo by the Japanese). This was known as the Hoover-Stimson doctrine of "non-recognition of the fruits of aggression." The Japanese government simply ignored this token gesture and established full control over Manchukuo.

   The rise of three powerful and aggressive nations not content with the international status quo led to increasing uneasiness. Germany, Italy, and Japan, all strongly anti-communist, had not only stated individual intentions of territorial aggression but joined in a mutual defense treaty, the Axis Pact. The United States reaction was to set up a Senatorial committee, the Nye committee, to investigate the causes of American involvement in World War I so that congress could avert a repetition of that action. The Nye committee reported that the enormous profits of American munitions makers led to the needless involvement in World War I. Loans had been made by the U.S. to buy, and American ships had delivered these munitions. and that led to war.

   On the basis of the Nye committee findings, Congress passed a series of laws in l935, 1936, and 1937, known as the Neutrality Acts, designed to keep the U.S. out of any possible future war. These acts provided that when the President found a state of war to exist anywhere he would have to invoke a mandatory arms embargo on all belligerent nations, that no American vessels could travel in war zones, and that all loans to belligerent nations were prohibited. These Neutrality Acts marked the peak of isolationist sentiment. They were invoked when Hitler's Germany invaded Poland in September, 1939 and World War II began in Europe.

   The problem was that the American people wanted two things which turned out to be mutually exclusive. They wanted to avoid involvement in the European war and they wanted England and France to defeat Germany. Since the arms embargo prevented the U.S. from selling any war materials to the Allies (England and France), and since the American people wanted to provide aid without running any risk of entanglement in the war, a revision of the Neutrality Acts was necessary. This revision came in the form of the Cash-Carry policy which allowed for sale of munitions to belligerent nations if they would pay cash for them (no loans) and carry them from American shores in their own vessels (no American ships in war zones).

   The Cash-Carry policy was only the first step away from strict neutrality. When England indicated that it could not continue the war without some additional means of protecting its merchant ships against German submarines, Roosevelt came up with the Destroyer Deal. Under this executive action the U.S. would "trade" fifty "over-age" destroyers to England in return for American leases on British naval bases in the Western Hemisphere. This was pitched as an action to increase our hemispheric security. Then in 1941 when England ran out of money, Congress passed the Lend-Lease bill allowing the U.S. to lend or lease "any materials of war not necessary for our defense to any nation whose defense was deemed vital to our national security."

   While moving away grudgingly and slowly from real neutrality in the war in Europe, the U.S. had no such reluctance in adopting an unneutral stance when Japan invaded China in 1937. Since there was no official declaration of war, Roosevelt did not invoke the Neutrality Acts but instead immediately provided for shipments of war materials to China. As Japan continued to increase its control over mainland China during 1940-41, President Roosevelt attempted to halt Japanese aggression by applying economic pressure through a series of trade embargos. After Japan invaded Indo-China the U.S. issued a series of diplomatic ultimata which the Japanese rejected. Japan then responded with its attack of Pearl Harbor and the U.S. was at war.

Page 5

Describe the main goals and programs of the New Deal for dealing with the plight of farmers, working men, businesses, and the elderly.

   The overall goals of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal were to preserve the capitalistic economic order and the two-party democratic political system. Both of these foundations of American society were under attack when Roosevelt assumed office in 1933 as a result of the prolonged and intense economic depression of the nation. Many people were persuaded that the economic system had to be restructured and that the government was powerless to handle the problems. Membership in the Socialist and Communist parties was on the rise, for example.

   Against this backdrop of mounting disillusionment with the system, Roosevelt acted to try to restore public confidence in the banking system, one of the two underlying pillars of the capitalistic economy. Indeed the first New Deal measure passed by Congress was the Emergency Banking Relief Act which closed banks until they could be audited and reopened with a government stamp of approval. Later Roosevelt pushed for creation of the Securities Exachange Commission which was intended to restore public confidence in the Stock Market,the other pillar of a capitalist economy, through reform and continuing regulation of the activities of that institution. The intitial New Deal legislation was surprisingly conservative given the desperate conditions of the nation.

   In keeping with the goal of trying to shore up the nation's economy the New Deal attempted to help business recovery by passing the National Industrial Recovery Act which set up the National Recovery Administration. This agency ignored anti-trust laws and encouraged industry-wide planning and fixing of production and prices. It also established guidelines for big business and fair trade codes. Despite its helpful intent, the N.R.A. was severely criticized by big business corporations as involving too much intervention by the federal government in the nation's economy. In response to these attacks on New Deal legislation the administration became increasingly more hostile toward the business community.

   When the administration turned its attention to the distressed conditions of American farmers it asked for a group of farm experts to analyze the underlying agricultural problem. The answer was that farmers suffered from overproduction. The New Deal answer was passage of the Agricultural Adjustment Act which tried to increase farm prices through limiting production of farm goods. This plan entailed the government paying farmers to take lands out of cultivation for a period of time. The idea was that this would decrease production as well as improve the soil by letting it lie fallow for a while. While farm incomes did rise gradually they never at any time during the New Deal attained World War I levels.

   For the working men of the nation who found themselves confronting an unprecedented 25% unemployment rate the New Deal instituted a number of work relief programs. While providing direct federal welfare through breadlines and soup kitchens, the adminsitration viewed these measures as temporary stopgaps. To provide employment the New Deal established a Public Works Administration to let out government contracts to private companies for the construction of dams and other public works projects. When this proved inadequate, Roosevelt appointed his closest political associate, Harry Hopkins, to head up several relief agencies to speed up hiring of the unemployed.

   Under Harry Hopkins the approach was to have the federal government serve as an "employer of last resort" and hire all types of workers who could not find a job in the private sector. Under the umbrella of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, Hopkins established agencies like the Works Projects Administration to hire artists, musicians, and historians (even historians have to eat) not covered under other programs. Young men were hired by the Civilian Conservation Corps to work on reforestation projects, clear lands, and build bridges and fish ponds. This served both the unemployed and the environment.

   The National Labor Relation Act, or Wagner Act, was another measure designed to help workers. It granted working men the right to organize and bargain collectively. Because this was the first time under federal law that labor unions were recognized as legal entities this law is known as the "Magna Carta" of the American labor movement. While these laws to improve the conditions of workers never resulted in full employment during the domestic New Deal, they did reduce unemployment from the record high 25% to 10% by 1939. Thus the Democratic party which passed these New Deal measures increasingly received the political support of labor.

   Nor was labor the only group to join the Democratic party political coalition under Roosevelt. Ethnic groups, like Afro-Americans, also deserted the Republican party which they had supported since the Civil War and joined the Roosevelt coaliton. They did so, not because the New Deal passed any Civil Rights acts (not a one), but because the measures designed to decrease unemployment benefitted those with the highest levels of joblessness - like Blacks, Mexican-Americans, and Native Americans (Indians). Native Americans were also grateful to the New Deal for the Indian Reorganization Act which reversed the federal government's century-long policy of trying to break up Indian tribes and instead stressed tribal autonomy and self-government.

   The elderly also increasingly found a political home in the Democratic party because of a New Deal program focusing on the plight of those too old to work and without adquate income to survive. The Social Security Act was an omnibus bill which provided for old-age pensions, unemployment compensation, and welfare grants. This measure, challenged at the time by a New York congressman as both unconstitutional and "ungodly," was upheld by the Supreme Court and has been affirmed by every administration, Republican and Democrat alike, since 1935. Thus through its actions in behalf of have-not groups Roosevelt succeeded in putting together a political coalition of urban workers, ethnics(especially Blacks), and labor unions.

   The New Deal never achieved the level of prosperity the nation enjoyed in the 1920s but did bring about partial economic recovery. It did so, however, at the expense of a balanced federal budget. All those domestic programs, and the bureaucracy created to administer them, led to the government embarking upon a program of "deficit financing," spending more than the government took in through revenues. While both costly and vigorously criticized by its opponents the domestic New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt achieved its primary goals of preserving( with some additional government involvement) the essential capitalistic economic system and the traditional two-party (with a shift in party strength) political structure of the nation.

Page 6

Compare and contrast the relationships between the United States and the Soviet Union during World War II and the decade after the war.

    Prior to American involvement in World War II relationships between the Soviet Union and the United States had been wary and unfriendly. For a period of 16 years following the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, the U.S. refused even to extend diplomatic recognition to Russia. Even after recognition neither country trusted the other. When the United States was thrust into the war after Pearl Harbor it found itself allied with the Soviet Union against a common enemy -Germany. The relationship which developed was that of a strained alliance. It was at best a marriage of convenience, not a love match.

    Yet the United States and the Soviet Union did cooperate diplomatically and militarily during the war out of necessity. In conjunction with England they hammered out a number of agreements at war-time conferences. Because German troops were besieging Russian cities at time of American entry in the war, the Soviet Union's major diplomatic objective was to get an Allied promise to launch an immediate cross-channel invasion to open up a massive second front in western Europe. This would force some German divisions to leave the Russian front. President Roosevelt pledged that we would do so by Fall, 1942. When the invasion did not take place until June, 1944 Russian mistrust and suspicion of the United States intensified.

    At the beginning of U.S. involvement in the war the "Big Three" (the U.S., England, and the Soviet Union) agreed to concentrate on the military defeat of Germany, and worry about Japan later. This focus on Germany's defeat was clearly reflected at the Casablanca conference in North Africa when the Big Three agreed to fight until Germany surrendered unconditionally. Since Germany posed the greatest military threat to both England and the Soviet Union (which was not even at war with Japan), the decision was understandable. But critics have argued that demanding unconditional surrender prolonged the war because Germany had nothing to gain by surrendering.

    Another wartime conference of the Big Three, at Yalta in the Crimea (part of Russia), had important post-war implications as well as wartime goals. At Yalta, under urging by the United States, the Soviet Union agreed to enter a post-war association of nations (the U.N.), and to go to war against Japan within three months of the defeat of Germany. In return the Soviet Union was to receive part of Sakhalin Island near Japan, and was allowed to maintain troops in Poland and the rest of Eastern Europe, provided that Russia would permit free elections in all those countries immediately after the war was over. The Soviet Union's violation of the pledge of free elections in Eastern Europe following the war was a harbinger of the "Cold War."

    Indeed, when the war ended the fundamental disagreement between the U.S. and the Soviet Union involved the question of who would control Europe. Russia, in order both to expand Communism and establish a safe "buffer zone" of Soviet satellite nations in Eastern Europe, consolidated its control over those countries. This led to what Great Britain's Prime Minister during World II, Winston Churchill, called the descent of an "iron curtain" over all of Eastern Europe. This issue was compounded by Russia's fear of an American monopoly of nuclear weapons. When the U.S., through the Baruch Plan, offered to turn its atomic technology over to a U.N. Atomic Energy Commission, provided no other country tried to develop an atom bomb, Russia refused.

    As the Soviet Union consolidated its control over Eastern Europe and put pressure on other countries, the Truman adminstration developed what has become known as the policy of containment. This policy, developed by 1947 by George Kennan and other State Department leaders and experts, was intended to halt the outward flow of Soviet power. The U.S. policy toward the Soviet Union, according to Kennan, should be one of long-range, patient, but firm and vigilant containment of Soviet expansionist tendencies. Containment was to check the spread of communism, but not to provoke war or try to "roll back" the iron curtain. "Long-range" and "patient" were the operative words.

    The containment policy was first applied in Greece and Turkey, both of whose government's were under attack by communist insurgents with Soviet backing. To prevent the spread of Soviet control in these two countries, President Truman announced the "Truman Doctrine" which provided $400 million of economic and military aid to Greece and Turkey, and promised to help "free people everywhere" resist subjugation. Shored up by this infusion of American aid, Greece and Turkey withstood communist take-over and the policy of containment had its first victory. An unforeseen consequence of American aid was that the anti-communist governments that emerged in those two countries were repressive, military dictatorships.

    Having "saved" Greece and Turkey from Soviet expansion, the United States was then confronted by the threat of communist expansion in Western Europe through the rapidly growing influence of the Communist parties in countries like France and Italy. The reason for the increasing popularity of the communist parties was the utter economic devastation of Western Europe after World War II. Realizing that communism breeds best in conditions of poverty ("Democracy begins somewhere over1600 calories a day"), Truman took the next step in fleshing out the containment policy. Secretary of State George C. Marshall announced the Marshall Plan whose primary aim was to rebuild the economies of Wester Europe to prevent any internal communist revolutions. 

    With the success of the Marshall Plan, which involved $5 billion of American aid to Western Europe and led to non-communist regimes retaining political control, the Soviet Union tried a different ploy to roll back American influence in Europe. When World War II ended the allies agreed to divide Germany into zones with Russia having control of the eastern zone (which became East Germany), but to allow all the allies control over a sector of Berlin, which was in the Russian zone. In 1948 the Soviet Union asserted that the allies would have to leave Berlin and blockaded the flow of supplies to Berlin by land routes. Truman responded with the Berlin Airlift, by which the U.S. airlifted supplies to Berlin to maintain an American presence. Russia lifted the blockade.

    Concerned that the Berlin blockade might indicate a Russian willingess to use military force to extend its dominance, the United States took the lead in establishing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949. This was a mutual collective security agreement involving the United States and its western European allies. It stated that an attack upon any member nation would be considered an attack on all and all would respond militarily. To underscore its determination to stand by its European friends, the U.S. provided the bulk of men for a separate NATO military force. Dwight Eisenhower was named the first NATO commander. The creation of this security pact rounded out the U.S. policy of containing Soviet expansionism.

Page 7

Discuss the major goals, programs, and results of the New Frontier and the Great Society.

In 1960 John F. Kennedy eked out a razor-thin electoral victory over former Vice-President Richard M. Nixon in a campaign in which Kennedy promised to lead America into a New Frontier.  He contrasted his view of what the nation needed - to move ahead with new vision and new commitment to reform - with what he depicted as the smug complacency of the preceding Republican adminstration.  His favorite campaign theme was the necessity to "get this country moving again."  And his plea in his inaugural was for the American people to "ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."

Once in office Kennedy tried to translate his electoral victory into a series of legislative programs what would bring about his New Frontier vision.  Kennedy's highest domestic priority was to get the economy moving again after the two recessions of the Eisenhower years.  Toward this goal Kennedy succeeded in his proposals for trade expansion stimulated by lower tariffs.  These were embodied in the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT), a program for economic planning and cooperation with the nation's European trading partners.  Kennedy also secured passage of a tax reform measure which shifted the burden of taxation upward to the higher income level and left more spendable dollars in the pockets of the middle class.

Kennedy also suceeded in his proposal for America to enter a "New Frontier" in space through increased funding of the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA).  To emphasize the administration's committment to this program he placed Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson in overall charge of getting the program going.  Not only did this result in the nation catching up with the Soviet Union in the "space race" but in stimulating the economy through the money poured into this effort.  And Kennedy added a new dimension to our foreign policy with the creation of the Peace Corps, an agency designed to help underdeveloped nations through the technical assistance of American volunteers.

The New Frontier of the Kennedy administration also envisioned a whole series of domestic reform programs to "get the country moving again" in the area of social progress.  These included Kennedy's proposals for long-awaited reforms in education, health care, and civil rights. This attempt to get the federal government to take responsibility for and act in behalf of domestic reform essentially tried to carry on the legacy of Roosevelt's New Deal and Truman's Fair Deal.  Lacking any long-term experience in Congress, Kennedy tried to rely upon personal appeal to get these programs passed, and he failed.  While unable to get any civil rights bill passed, Kennedy's backing for the civil rights movement resulted in new national support for it.

With Kennedy's assassination in November, 1963 a new president with a very different style and background inherited Kennedy's mantle of leadership and his unfinished legislative program.  Lyndon B. Johnson, with his many years of experience in the House of Representative and as Senate majority leader, was much better at working with the Congress than Kennedy.  Johnson, as a "member of the club," knew how to "twist arms" and call in political IOUs to get things done.  Indeed the critical difference in the effectiveness of the two men was Johnson's experience in manipulating the political system.  And the experience paid off in the passage of three reform proposals under Johnson which Kennedy had not been able to achieve.

Johnson pushed through Congress a program of massive federal funding for education - the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.  He was also able to secure passage of a program of national health insurance, Medicare (for the elderly) and Medicaid (for the poor).  And finally Johnson, a Southerner, used all his influence and experience to achieve Kennedy's dream of civil rights reform.  The Civil Rights Act of 1964 abolished racial segregation in all public facilities, and the Civil Rights Act of 1965 guaranteed voting rights, which allowed Blacks an active role in Southern politics.  But Johnson was not content with fulfilling the legislative goals of the New Frontier.  He set out to achieve his own vision of the "Great Society."

A truly "great society," Johnson argued, could not allow millions of its citizens to live in poverty.  Therefore the central feature of the  Great Society was to be a War of Poverty.  And Johnson pledged to utilize the nation's resources in this domestic war as he would in a foreign conflict.  The War on Poverty proposals emphasized government funding for such self-help programs as the Comprehensive Education and Training Administration (CETA), and the  Small Business Administration.  CETA was intended to provide job training for high school dropouts and others without employable skills. SBA was designed to loan both money and tecnhical assistance to minority-owned small business ventures.

Under the overall direction of the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), these self-help programs produced some improvement in employment, but at a cost that critics felt was excessive.  Administrative inefficiency and abuse led to decreased appropriations for these agencies.  But the real demise of the Great Society came with the escalation of the war in Viet Nam.  Funds previously available for domestic programs were diverted to the "Americanization" of the Vietnamese conflict.  When it became apparent that the nation could not afford both a War on Poverty and a war in Southeast Asia, when the administration had to make a choice between "guns and butter", Johnson chose guns.  The War on Poverty became a casualty of the Viet Nam war.

The Kennedy-Johnson years constitute what the text refers to as the   "climax of liberalism."  By this it means that this period saw the fruition of the belief that the government can act as an agent for social reform.  The results of this period of federal government activism, beginning with Roosevelt's New Deal, and extending through Truman's Fair Deal right up to Johnson's Great Society (interrupted only by Eisenhower's "healing calm") are evident in all the legislative programs passed during these administrations - from government agencies to combat recession to laws designed to bring about reforms in education, health care, and civil rights. But by 1968 "liberalism" came into disfavor and gave way to the conservatism of Richard M. Nixon.
 

|Contents|Quit|Back|Next|Test|