The United States and the world since 1918

RESUME

The United States, in the early twentieth century, is an isolationist power, they do not want to
intervene in international affairs. The First World War threatens their interests and pushes
them to intervene in the con it. In the aftermath of the war, Wilson is a key player in the
drafting of peace treaties and he wants to establish collective security with fourteen points.
However, the treaties are not rati ed by the United States and the Americans do not adhere to
the League. During the 1920s, the United States intervenes little in international affairs and
when they do it is to protect their interests. They practice "dollar diplomacy". The crisis of
1929 strengthens them in their non-interventionist position. Yet they intervene in the Second
World War and become "the arsenal of democracies". At the end of the war, the United States
is by far the most powerful country in the world and enjoys great prestige. The Cold War
pushes them into an indirect confrontation with the USSR, and they intervene in many con
icts to prevent the spread of Communism. The rocket crisis in Cuba brings a period of
relaxation but does not signify tensions. The United States intervenes massively in Vietnam.
During the 1970s, the United States faced criticism of its policies and set back on the
international scene. The return of Reagan in 1981 allows an offensive return of the United
States then the cold war ends in 1991. The United States, having become a hyperpower, then
appears as the guarantors of a "new world order" and advocates multilateralism. However, the
attacks of September 11, 2001 result in a return of the unilateralism of Americans who want
to defend their interests. Criticism of them and the difficulties they face cause the Obama
administration to change its policy. However, criticisms against the United States remain.

I. The United States and the world from 1918 to 1945

A- The United States in 1918

1. The Wilsonian Principles

At the beginning of the First World War, the United States is isolationist, that is, it is their
policy not to intervene internationally and to protect their national interests.
DEFINITION Isolationism : Isolationism is a policy of a State not to intervene abroad and to
focus on your own interests.
EXAMPLE : Since the nineteenth century, American opinion has been predominantly
partisan of isolationism. Wilson, who allows the intervention of the United States in the First
World War, does so to defend American interests because he is isolationist. In 1916, he was
re-elected for his second term with the slogan "he kept us out of the war". The then president,
Woodrow Wilson, was re-elected in 1916 for a second term with the slogan "he kept us out
of the war". The United States, however, intervened alongside France and the United
Kingdom in 1917, following the submarine war that threatened their interests and the German
project to bring Mexico into the war. Their mobilization allows victory over Germany. At the
Versailles Conference between 1919 and 1920, Wilson gave his vision of international
relations. It sets out in a text, the "fourteen points", to ensure collective peace and promote a
new way of managing relations between countries.

It wants to put in place the conditions ensuring a "collective security".

 - He advocates for "the right of peoples to self-determination". He believes that borders
should not be drawn according to the balance of power between the powers but
according to the wishes of the people.
- In addition, he wishes to create an international organization for the maintenance of
peace. This is how the League of Nations (or SDN) is born, with the mission of
managing tensions through collective arbitration.
- However, Wilson's action is a failure. Many peoples are integrated into states in which
they become minorities and Germany is cut in two by the Danzig Corridor, intended to
provide access to the sea to the Poles. The Germans will never stop criticizing this
treaty, which they describe as diktat. In addition, the US Senate does not ratify the
Versailles Treaty and refuses membership of the League of Nations.

2. The United States and the world in the 1920s

The United States is the leading economic power in 1918. In the early 1920s they held about
50% of the world's gold stock and made one-third of international investment. They hardly
intervene abroad except to defend their interests. Their main international ambition is to
guarantee freedom of trade and access to prosperity to stem the risks of war. They use their
economic power to guarantee peace in Europe, this is called "dollar diplomacy". They are
pressuring France to accept the abandonment of German payments for the damage caused
during the First World War. The Dawes plans in 1924 and Young in 1929 settled the question
of reparations and included Germany in international relations. The two heads of American
and French foreign affairs allow the signing by 63 states of the Briand-Kellogg Pact in 1928.
The war becomes "outlawed".

B. Isolationism and interventionism

1. Isolationism after 1929 On October 24, 1929,

the Wall Street Crash plunged the United States into an economic crisis that resulted in a
sharp decline and an explosion of unemployment.

The crisis is causing Americans to increase their tariffs and repatriate their capital
invested abroad. This policy takes the Europeans, and especially the Germans, into crisis.
The priority of the Americans is given to the economic recovery of their country which is
allowed thanks to the election of Roosevelt in 1933 and its Keynesian policy of the New
Deal (the State stimulates the economy by investing massively).

In this difficult economic context, the problem of European debts contracted during the
war and not repaid becomes a controversial subject within the American public. It
reinforces the idea that the country must stay away from the affairs of the European
continent. Thus, the first law of neutrality is passed in 1935 after the invasion of Ethiopia
by Italy. Two other laws followed in 1936 and in 1937.

Added to this is the cash and carry clause, which states that in order to buy weapons in
the United States, a country must pay for them themselves and pay them in cash. This
allows the United States to stay away from the tensions affecting Europe.

2. Participation in the Second World War

Despite their initial isolationist will, the United States is progressively involved in the Second
World War. In March 1941, after lengthy debates, the United States passed the Lend-Lease
Act to provide equipment to the British without entering directly into conflict. In August
1941, Roosevelt and Churchill signed the Atlantic Charter. The triggering event takes place
on December 7, 1941, when the United States is hit by the Japanese on their soil during the
Pearl Harbor attack. The United States then put in place the Victory program which mobilizes
all the forces of the country in the con it. They quickly become the "arsenal of democracies"
and intervene in the Paci only against the Japanese. In 1944, as part of Operation Overlord,
the United States landed in Normandy. On May 8, 1945, Germany capitulated while the con it
with Japan continues. President Truman made use of the atomic bomb at Hiroshima on
August 6, 1945 and Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, obtaining the surrender of Japan.

3. The United States in 1945

At the end of the con it, the United States con rmed their role as the world's leading power. -
-- They own two-thirds of the world's gold reserves.
- They are responsible for half of the world's industrial production.
- They are the only power to possess the nuclear weapon.
- Their decisive intervention in the war gives them great prestige.
- They now apply an interventionist policy: they want a peaceful world whose rules they
enact.
- In 1945, the tripartite conferences (with the United Kingdom and the USSR) of Yalta
and Potsdam set the conditions for the new world order in the aftermath of the war.
- The signing of the San Francisco Charter in June 1945 allowed the creation of the
United Nations, the United Nations.

The United States dominates the creation of international economic institutions in the
aftermath of the war. The 1944 Bretton Woods agreements allow for the creation of
the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which guarantees the International Monetary
System (or SMI). The currencies are indexed to the dollar which is itself indexed on
gold. This system allows the stability of currencies and makes the dollar the
international currency. In 1947, the United States played a leading role in the creation
of the GATT, whose objective was to limit the barriers to international trade.

II. United states in the cold war

A- United States, leader of the Western bloc.

1. The beginnings of the cold war

Quickly, after the Second World War, the cold war settled. It opposes the United States
"defender of the free world" and the communist USSR. In the aftermath of the war, the
countries liberated by the Red Army become communists. Truman faces this Soviet
expansionism and enacts the theory of containment (or containment in French) that aims to
stop the spread of communism. The Marshall Plan is in place to provide financial assistance
to countries wishing to do so. Sixteen countries in Western Europe accept.

Following the creation of the Deutsche Mark in West Germany (which predicted the birth of
the FRG), Stalin decided to set up the Berlin blockade in 1948. In response, the United States
organized an airlift to to supply the western part of the city. In Asia, the United States
intervenes in Korea and helps the French, involved in the war of Indochina to fight against
communism. They state the theory of repression (rollback) which is no longer only to stop the
progress of the Soviets but to make them back. John Foster Dulles, Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs, theorizes the doctrine of massive retaliation.
DEFINITION Containment : Containment is a political theory of the United States at the
beginning of the Cold War to stop Soviet expansion by intervening in countries threatened
with communism.
EXAMPLE The American intervention in the Korean War helps stop the progress of the
communists, this intervention is programmed as part of the containment.
DEFINITION Doctrine of massive retaliation : The doctrine of massive retaliation (or Dulles
doctrine) is to respond in a massive way with the use of nuclear weapons against a country
attacking a NATO member.
EXAMPLE According to some sources, Dulles would have proposed to the French the use of
the atomic weapon in the con it against Vietminhs in Indochina. In 1949, the USSR made its
first nuclear tests and entered an "arms race" with the United States. The latter then set up
military alliances to counter the Soviets whose power increases:

- NATO was created in 1949. It is a military organization that brings together many
Western nations to defend North America and Western Europe.
- In 1954, the Western European Union (WEU) allowed the rearming of West Germany
into a European military union linked to the Western bloc.
- The ANZUS in 1951 brings together in a military union Australia, New Zealand and
the United States.
- The Baghdad pact in 1955 united with the Americans and the British, Pakistan, Turkey
and Iran.
- The USSR responded by establishing the Warsaw Pact, a military alliance it
dominates.

2. Peaceful coexistence and relaxation

The death of Stalin in 1953 allows a relative improvement of relations between the two
Great and inaugurates the period of peaceful coexistence. This does not mean the n of the
opposition. Indeed, the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 caused a renewed tension
between the USSR and the United States. It is followed by the 1962 missile crisis in
Cuba, won by the United States.

Following this serious crisis, the United States and the USSR are aware of their
possibility of mutual destruction and inaugurate a period of quality relaxation. The United
States then abandons the "massive retaliation theory" and becomes more moderate
against the Communists. Kennedy develops the theory of graded response that aims to
respond appropriately to a potential threat.

The two adversaries began negotiations to stop the arms race in the 1960s and signed the
SALT1 disarmament agreements in 1972 and SALT2 in 1979.
DEFINITION Graduated response : The graduated response is a theory that aims to
respond appropriately to a potential threat. It allows the abandonment of the "massive
retaliation theory". However, relaxation does not mean stress n: The United States is
 investing more in Vietnam and under Johnson's presidency, many soldiers are mobilized.
Opposition moves into other areas like the conquest of space.
EXAMPLE The USSR seems to have won in the early 1960s the race for space. In 1961,
she made the first manned flight by sending Yuri Gagarin into space. The United States is
catching up and landing on the moon in 1969. From 1971, Kissinger then Nixon began
discussions and established diplomatic relations with China to counter the USSR.

3. The American soft power

DEFINITION Soft power Soft power or "soft power" is the persuasive power of a state. This
capacity for in uence relies on non-coercive means, unlike hard power, which refers to the
military in uence of a state.
EXAMPLE Hollywood cinema is one of the most effective means of US Soft Power.

The United States is also the leader of the Western bloc on the cultural level. So, during the
Allied landing, the American soldiers (GI's) allowed the Europeans discover new products
like blond cigarettes or Coca-Cola. Desiring to make their model attractive, they present an
idyllic vision of the American Way of life. The cinemas, the music, the diffusion of the
English language and the export of the dress codes are the main elements of the American
Soft Power. Culture, in the context of the cold war, is rapidly becoming a tool at the service
of the state to spread its ideology. American transnationals are also very powerful and settle
in the western world.

EXAMPLE Between 1950 and 1954, to counter Communism, McCarthy launched what is
called the "witch hunt" in the United States. The cultural world, including Hollywood, sees
many artists, accused of communism, excluded from American society.

But this model is challenged during the Cold War. Many in the Western bloc perceive
American soft power as a steamroller destroying local cultures and pushing companies to
overconsumption. The communist militants, numerous in France during the cold war,
reproach him for being a tool in the service of American imperialism.

B- The United States and the Cold War

1. America's weakened power

During the 1960s and the 1970s, the United States faced a moral and economic crisis. First,
the Vietnam War revolts American public opinion. Con it, very televised, shows the citizens
the violence of the combats, the repercussions on the civil populations and the cruelty of the
means used (like the napalm bombardment or the orange agent spraying). Public opinion
opposes the action of the United States to the values that America is supposed to embody.

France is distancing itself from the United States. It carries out its first nuclear tests in 1960
and criticizes the role of the United States in the war of Vietnam. Although she remains a
supporter of the Western world, especially during the Cuban crisis, she left NATO Integrated
Command in 1966. In addition, the costs of the war led to a decline in American gold stocks,
and in 1971 Nixon was forced to suspend the convertibility of the dollar established at Bretton
Woods in 1944. Another internal crisis is the "civil rights" movement, that is, the struggle of
the African-American population for equal rights and segregation. The movement is led by
Martin Luther King and the Black Panther Party, a revolutionary African-American
movement is growing nationwide. In the context of the endless Cold War, the United States
lost ground against the USSR:
- Cambodia, in the hands of the Khmer Rouge of Maoist obedience, is invaded by
Vietnam, allied with the USSR in 1979.
- The USSR supports communist guerrillas in Angola and Mozambique.
- Ethiopia becomes a communist in 1974.
- In Nicaragua, the pro-Western dictator is expelled and a regime of Marxist obedience
is established in 1979.
- The USSR invaded Afghanistan in 1979. In the United States, the United States was
humiliated during the Iranian revolution in 1979. The pro-Western Shah of Iran was
driven out of power by Ayatollah Khomeini. The US Embassy is attacked and 52
Americans are taken hostage.

2. The United States wins the Cold War

US President Jimmy Carter, in power since 1977, is accused of being responsible for the
weakening of the United States. In 1981, Ronald Reagan was elected president of the United
States with a program announcing "America is back". He wants his country to resume the
offensive on the USSR called "Empire of Evil". He relaunched the offensive against the
communist bloc:

- He arms the Afghan rebels.

- It helps the armed struggle in Nicaragua fighting against the ruling Marxist regime.
- And launches the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) program, nicknamed the "Star
Wars", aimed at putting in place a "space shield". This offensive return of the United
States is facilitated by the decline of the USSR. In power since 1985, Gorbachev
wants to reform his country facing a crisis. It recalls the Soviet troops of Afghanistan
and signs with the United States a treaty of nuclear disarmament (it is the Treaty of
Washington of 1987).

III The United States since 1991

A- A new world order

Following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, an international coalition dominated by the United States
and under UN mandate, intervened to liberate the country in 1991.

The coming to power of Clinton in 1993 allowed the practice of enlargement policy. The
objective of this policy is to ensure peace through prosperity and the development of the
market economy and not through aggressive politics. US military spending fell by one-third
during Clinton's two terms from 1993 to 2001.

The Oslo Accords are signed in 1993 between Israelis and Palestinians. The United States
intervenes to end the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina and allows the signing of the Dayton
Accords in 1995. Former communist countries such as Poland, Hungary or the Czech
Republic join NATO in 1999.
 To carry out this policy of enlargement, the United States continues to promote the market
economy. The Uruguay Round, which aims to liberalize trade, begins in 1986 and ends in
1994.

- Free trade agreements are in place in Asia-Pacific (with APEC) and in the North
American region (with NAFTA).
- The World Trade Organization (WTO) was established in 1995 and joined China in
2001. However, the United States also knows how to defend their interests and reject
multilateralism:
- They do not sign the Kyoto agreements in 1997 on the reduction of greenhouse gases
they consider too restrictive.
- And do not participate in the International Criminal Court.

B -The United States since 2001

1. The attacks of September 11, 2001

On September 11, 2001, the bombings in New York and Washington stunned Americans
and the world. These attacks are claimed by Al Qaeda, a radical Islamist organization led
by bin Laden. George W. Bush talks about going on a "crusade" against the "axis of evil",
in which he joins Afghanistan, Iraq, North Korea and Iran.

The United States reacts quickly and in October 2001, under a UN mandate, an American-
dominated coalition invaded Afghanistan, home to Al Qaeda. The intervention allows the
fall of the Taliban regime.

In 2003, the United States, which suspects Saddam Hussein of possessing unconventional
weapons, intervened in Iraq and brought down the regime of Saddam Hussein. This
intervention project, much criticized by some countries like France, is conducted
unilaterally by the United States (that is to say without the agreement of the UN).

2. America in difficulty

Under the administration of George W. Bush, the United States suffers many criticisms.
Their unilateral intervention revolts a part of public opinion, especially since the
American victories in Iraq and Afghanistan are very relative. Indeed, Iraq has been in
chaos since the fall of Saddam Hussein and the Taliban still controls a large part of
Afghanistan.

In addition, the methods used by the United States in Abu Ghraib Prison and Guantanamo,
such as torture, alert human rights defenders. The challenge of US imperialism affects
Latin America and states are grouped around the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez who
nationalizes the oil sector in his country at the expense of American interests.

Moreover, the economic crisis of 2008 begins in the United States and has strong social
consequences in the country. The alter-globalist movement criticizes the economic
liberalism advocated by the United States.
Finally, emerging countries are experiencing strong growth and threatening the
dominating weight of the United States in the global economy. China, second economic
power in 2010, becomes the first creditor of the United States.

3. The return of multilateralism?

Barack Obama comes to power in 2009 and wants to break with the unilateral policy of
George W. Bush. He travels to Cairo in 2009 and delivers a speech aimed at reconciling
the United States with the Muslim world. He is organizing the phasing out of US troops in
Iraq and Afghanistan.

The United States let other powers lead wars. Thus, France and Britain intervene to bring
down the Kadha regime in Libya and France intervenes in Mali to fight against AQIM.

The United States is also resuming talks with the Cuban communist regime in December
2014.