Question

Compare two major foreign policy in the US initiatives in the interwar years (1920s and 1930s) with those that arose in the postwar years (WW2) (Late-1940s, 1950s, and 1960s). Please discuss at least two policy details from each era, and defend their importance

Answer 1

The two major foreign policy initiatives in the pre-war period were

• Active independent involvement: The US intervened in a lot of issues and places during the pre war period, though it almost always did it independently- without consultation with or under auspices of any other country or group of countries (such as legaue of nations). The US used both its financial and military power to do that. Examples of this would be food aid missions during the war in Belgium or intervention in Russian civil war.
  This showed the world that US was now a major, if not the pre-eminent, world power.
• Dawes and Young plans- There were US brokered solutions for German reparation issues- where Germany was not able to pay its first world war reparations and France, as a result, occupired Ruhr district of Germany.
  These plans helped sort out pending WW1 issues.

Initiatives post WW2-

• Marshall Plan-In this plan US actively gave aid to countries devastated by WW2, including western European ones and Japan, to rebuild their economies and to come in US influence orbit.
  This plan resulted in upliftment of these countries and kept them in US orbit. It also resulted in US having positive public opinion in these countries.
• NATO- This US led military and self defense pact was against the USSR during the cold war. It resulted in most western countries joining each other in self defense pact against USSR.
  This helped smaller European countries to feel safe against USSR. Though it also resulted in increased tensions with the USSR.