Document

HIST 330 Extra Credit
Dr. Guerrier
Chris Pigott
The Evolution of Ideology and American Foreign Policy
Introduction:
The United States of America has had a profound impact on global affairs ever sense it gained its independence following the American Revolution. As a new nation, the United States saw itself as “God’s American Israel.” As a new nation full of ideals, the United States saw it as its God-given duty and right to spread the ideals and institutions that the republic was founded on. These ideologies however, would change with time. Manifest Destiny, which was coined by John L. O’Sullivan in the 18th century, would lead the United States (U.S.) to justify its expansionism, and would be followed by a New Manifest Destiny in the 19th and 20th centuries, that would see the emergence of the United States on the global stage. Following World War I the United States would be guided by the old ideology of isolationism, which had prevented our immediate entry into World War I and World War II. World War II, would bring about a major shift in America’s governing ideology that has shaped the nation’s foreign policy, which is still evident and relevant today. This paper outlines the ideologies that dictated America’s foreign policy from the 18th century to the early 20th century. Section one focuses on American ideology in the 18th century, Section two the 19th century into the early 20th century, and Section three the mid-20th century into the early 21st century.
Section One: 18th Century The United States, from its beginning, was a collection of self-governing states; the Articles of Confederation limited the power of the government, merely allowing the United States to provide itself a sense of legitimacy to fight the American Revolution. However, colonists had fear the creation of an all-powerful government; the only real authority that the Articles of Confederation had was through the ability of the government to send appeals to try and influence change. George Washington, the first president of the United States, would signify the ideals that the United States held following the American Revolution. During his Farewell Address, Washington would warn against the United States involving itself in foreign affairs, especially, European affairs. He felt that these treaties and/or obligations could have undue influence in domestic affairs. Washington understood that treaties were an unavoidable aspect of diplomacy, but he bitterly warned against long-term alliances. The United States saw itself as exceptional; in essence the United States was the “great experiment,” the ideal that the United States had gained its independence through revolution, and this made it unique. This “American Exceptionalism” is what made the United States a truly unique country, a government based on: liberty, egalitarianism, individualism, and populism.”
This governing ideology meant that the United States limited itself from long-term treaties, seeking isolationism from the European continent; this would be evident through the United States’ demand that others nations respect its neutral rights. More importantly, the United States saw how war and alliances had devastated the European continent. The United States sought to distance itself from this chaos; the ideology of exceptionalism drove the United States to refrain from taking a global hegemonic role, or at least to readily challenge the French and British. Exceptionalism would guide United States foreign policy towards taking a regional and not a global focus, creating the “Empire of Liberty,” reflecting John Winthrop’s “City on a Hill.” The United States Constitution exemplified the very ideals that the United States sought to portray on the global stage; however, this era of American foreign policy would be characterized by neutrality and refraining from taking a leadership position amongst the other great powers in the world. Cases such as the Embargo Act of 1807 would depict that United States’ commitment to maintaining its neutrality. The embargo was imposed on the British and the French during the Napoleonic Wars because both the French and the British had violated United States neutrality; in effect it banned all foreign ships from U.S. ports. Treaties and embargos such as this would dictate U.S. foreign policy for the 18th century. The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United States, and created a real sense of unity within the United States, and this ideal of expansion would carry over into the next century. One of the more profound American policies, the Monroe Doctrine, would leave a lasting effect on future American leaders; the ideal that God had ordained the United States, creating a Western Hemisphere that was dedicated to democratic development, that the “New World” would be different from the “Old World.”
Section Two: 19th Century into the Early 20th Century Following the American Civil War, the United States found itself in a position to exert influence all over the globe, the ideals of isolation, while remaining intact, did not dictate the entirety of American foreign policy. Manifest Destiny had dictated that God had ordained the United States, not only because of its uniqueness, but because the United States sought to justify its expansion. This spiritual ideology of exceptionalism and expansion would lead the United States into conflicts such as the Mexican-American War. During the American Civil War the United States would contradict its historical reliance on neutral rights. The British, as well as other European powers, considered aiding the South in their war against the North. The British maintained that they had the right to remain neutral throughout the conflict and trade with belligerents, mimicking the United States’ approach to previous European conflicts. William Seward would write his “Theory of the Indivisibility of the Union,” which would state that the South’s succession from the Union was illegal, and thus it was illegal for the British to have a trading relationship with them. Incidents such as the Trent Affair, in which the USS San Jacinto intercepted the British mail ship RMS to capture two Southern Diplomats, James Mason and John Slidell, were exemplary of the changing ideology in American foreign policy. “New Manifest Destiny” would come about during this period. Following the American Civil War, the United States felt the desire to expand. The New Manifest Destiny was different from the first. The first Manifest Destiny had come about by a motivation to acquire real estate; the second about markets. Expansionism would dictate the ideology of American foreign policy in this period. The United States had developed into an industrialized country, which created huge surpluses of goods, goods that needed to be sold. When these surpluses could not be sold, workers were laid-off, creating a stop-and-go economy. The United States used this as justification to expand into foreign markets, to “dump” its surpluses. Fredrick Jackson Turner would write his “Frontier Thesis,” which was a very nationalistic piece, describing how westward expansion had made the United States what it was, that we are a people that desire a challenge. This ideal would dictate the expansion of the United States into Latin America. The Roosevelt Corollary would be added (amendment) to the Monroe Doctrine, recognizing “a sphere of control that few dared to challenge.” Roosevelt wanted to quell European influence in Latin America, and used the Monroe Doctrine to justify U.S. involvement in the region. This involvement was a representation of the ideals through which the country defined itself: liberty and prosperity, the ideal that the United State has an obligation to spreads its values and institutions all over the globe – that other countries could easily adapt the very society, ordained by God, that we had built for ourselves. New Manifest Destiny would also instill in American leaders the ideal of “the Whiteman’s burden.” The United States still saw itself as unique and exceptional. The United States believed that its values and ideals could be and should be spread all over the globe. However, the ideal of the Whiteman’s burden created principles such as Social Darwinism, the idea that White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant males were as good as it gets. The United States’ ideology of uniqueness would influence American leaders to get involved more steadily into international affairs, spreading its values and culture; an ideology that is very much with us today. In the time leading up to World War I, Woodrow Wilson would proclaim United States neutrality, but propaganda and German unrestricted submarine warfare would finally see the United States get involved in World War I. The alliances that the United States feared so much would finally drag the United States into a World War. If anything, World War I reinforced this ideal. The mobilization race (Industrial Warfare), the introduction of new weaponry, and trench warfare clearly displayed all of the reasons that the United States sought to stay out of long-term alliances, it did not want to find itself in the chaotic wars that devastated the European continent. The United States would remain isolated from the international scene until its ultimate involvement in World War II – a moral imperative to defeat the Nazi regime.
Section Three: Mid-20th Century into the Early 21st Century The end of World War II brought the immediate start of the Cold War, and the United States as a world super power. This entrance onto the global stage as a super power, combating the Soviet Union, was a complete transformation from the isolationist approach that the United States had taken prior to World War I and World War II. George Kennan would write his Long Telegram, and the Soviet Union would have and iron grip under Joseph Stalin. The telegram outlined for the United States the supposed Soviet intentions, that the Soviets sought expansion and influence, and that the Soviets wanted to spread communism everywhere. However, as history (hindsight) has shown, the Soviets had a hideous history of being invaded by foreign powers, the Soviet terrain was flat, much of it uninhabitable, and the Soviets sought to create “buffer zones,” to give the Kremlin sufficient time to defend itself against foreign aggressors.
Kennan’s telegram would lead to the governing ideology of containment. The United States would consider itself in a battle of good vs. evil, the United States being the former. This ideology of containment would have a profound impact on U.S. foreign policy, guiding the actions of the country over the course of fifty years. The Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan exemplified this ideology. The Truman Doctrine was a policy that stated the United States would support both Greece and Turkey (our Jupiter Missiles in Turkey, to contain Soviet expansion, would be one of the influential factors that persuaded Nikkita Khrushchev to place nuclear missiles in Cuba – the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis) with economic and military aid to prevent these two countries from falling under the “Soviet Sphere.” The Marshall Plan would be the economic aid program to rebuild Western Europe, before the Soviets could gain influence in the region with their own aid and reconstruction programs.
Containment became such a powerful and influential ideology in American foreign policy, that it would see the country over extend itself in foreign conflicts such as the Korean War, Vietnam, and Soviet-Afghan War (thought the United States would never formally enter the conflict – our covert military assistance to the Mujahedeen was payback for the Soviet’s covert support of the Vietcong and the North Vietnamese during the Vietnam War). Throughout the Cold War the “Domino Theory” would prevail as an influential governing ideology that would get the United States involved in foreign affairs as a result of trying to contain communism (at all costs). This theory was prevalent from the 1950’s to the 1980’s; the basic idea was that if one state in a given region was allowed to come under Soviet influence, than all of the countries in that region would follow suit, just like dominos do when they fall. This theory would justify the United States’ intervention all over the world to contain the Soviet Union (USSR). In December of 1991, the world would watch in amazement as the Soviet Union disintegrated into fifteen separate countries. The Cold War would end and the United States would find itself as the preeminent Hegemon (Super Power) on the international stage. This period, which saw Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait, would also see a decrease in the foreign policy budget of the United States. The Cold War had defined the political role of the United States in the post-World War II world. A new ideology would develop from the collapse of the Soviet Union, discussion about climate change, globalization, and many other issues with humanitarian effects. The United States had never retracted from its beliefs that it was its duty to spread the freedoms and liberties that we enjoyed in this country, all over the globe. This governing ideology would lead to incidents such as Black Hawk Down, in which President Bill Clinton ordered U.S Special Operations and Special Forces groups into Somalia to combat warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid. Somali was in the midst of a brutal civil war, and control of the city between sadistic war lords, and it led to mass starvation. The international community responded by sending food aid, which ended up back in the hands of these warlords. The incident would leave eighteen Americans dead, and would exemplify the difficulty of humanitarian interventions. September 11, 2001 would change America’s ideological role on the global stage. The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon would lead to America’s new global position as the global police force to combat the “War on Terror.” Just as the United States had found itself in an ideological struggle between the Soviet Union, good vs. evil, the United States had found itself in an ideological struggle that would define the first decade of the 21st century. The multipolar world that has emerged (BRIC States: Brazil, Russia, India, and China) has not meant an ideological struggle for global influence. The war on terror has influenced the United States to refrain from taking a global police role as it had during the Invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq. This multipolar world is not a battle of good vs. evil; it still remains to see what ideologies will develop through this new world order.
Conclusion:
While the United States’ ideologies of governing, that have directed its foreign policy, have evolved over the past few centuries, the United States has retained its historical policies of governing with its morals. Regardless of the motivations (many disagree about the United States’ true intentions), the United States has continued to govern with the ideologies that it has established for itself. A once isolationist nation entered the global stage and made an everlasting impact on the nature of foreign policy; the United States still views itself as exceptional, and directs its foreign policy initiatives as such.

Bibliography
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[ 1 ]. George C Herring, “From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations Since 1776.” Oxford. Available from Oxford Press.
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[ 5 ]. Seymour Martin, American Exceptionalism: A Double-Edges Sword. W. W. Norton & Company (1997). Available from W. W. Norton & Company.
[ 6 ]. Gordon S. Wood, Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815. Oxford. Available from Oxford Publishing.
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[ 10 ]. George C Herring, “From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations Since 1776.” Oxford. Available from Oxford Press.
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