UNITED STATES FOREIGN POLICY

The Cold War and Post-Cold War Years: 1945 to today

First... Id like to Thank my menotor for his help

Distinguished Prof. Dr Harry Targ

To Quote Dickens...• It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom,

it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

– The opening paragraph of the novel. The two cities referred to were London and

Paris during the turmoil of the French Revolution. For the oppressed citizens of 18th-century France, the revolution’s proclamation of the rights of man was indeed a “spring of hope.” But for those of the ancien régime, or the outgoing political system, it was a “winter of despair,” leading to death and destruction

Where We Are Today

Why the Worst of Times• -Iraq War: predicted $ 1-$3Trillion price tag• -Afghanistan War• -Israeli violence against the Palestinian people

Where We Are Today 2

• -Hostility with Iran, North Korea, Russia• -Rising mobilization economically and

politically of countries of the Global South against the United States

• -Declining legitimacy of the United States as a world power

• -Depression level domestic (and global economic crisis)

Where We Are Today 3• Why the Best of Times• -New Administration representing a substantially (but not

radically) different foreign policy vision and promised practice• -President Obama promises to use diplomacy as a tool to

achieve US goals (not just military)• -President Obama has promised to meet with (through

diplomatic channels) Iran, Cuba, Israel and representatives of the Palestinian peoples

• -Declared opposition to the use of torture• -elected by a coalition of peace activists who have demanded

a much more multilateral, diplomatic approach to international relations

The United States Role in the International System

• The U.S. as a Rising Power: 1890s to 1945

• The U.S. as the Hegemonic Power: 1945 to 1968

• Challenges to U.S. Power and Decline in Relative Power: 1968-1979

• Drive to Recreate U.S. Global Hegemony, Cold War II 1979 to 1991

• The U.S. as “the Last Remaining Superpower” in the Post Cold War Era: 1991 to 2001

• The U.S. in a Post-9/11 International system: 2001 on

Hegemony?• Hegemony was a term previously used by Marxists such as Vladimir Lenin to

denote the political leadership of the working-class in a democratic revolution. Gramsci greatly expanded this concept, developing an acute analysis of how the ruling capitalist class – the bourgeoisie – establishes and maintains its control

• Gramsci stated that bourgeois cultural values were tied to folklore, popular culture and religion, and therefore much of his analysis of hegemonic culture is aimed at these. He was also impressed by the influence Roman Catholicism had and the care the Church had taken to prevent an excessive gap developing between the religion of the learned and that of the less educated. Gramsci saw Marxism as a marriage of the purely intellectual critique of religion found in Renaissance humanism and the elements of the Reformation that had appealed to the masses.

• For Gramsci, Marxism could supersede religion only if it met people's spiritual needs, and to do so people would have to think of it as an expression of their own experience

While Europe was in debt and in ruins...

• At the conclusion of World War II, America was on a high. In all the world only the United States had a healthy economy, an intact physical plant capable of mass production of goods, and excess capital.

Understanding the Cold War

• Who is Responsible for the Cold War?

• Why Did the Cold War Occur?

• Explanations:

• ---Traditionalists: Soviet Union because of ideology; or Soviet Union because of pursuit of raw power

• ---Realists: Both the Soviet Union and the U.S. because of misperceptions; or Both the Soviet Union and the U.S. because each sought more power

• ---Revisionists: United States because of its pursuit of investments, trade, cheap labor, resources; ie. the needs of capitalism

It Matters Because• Whether the past helps us to understand the present is an important question

• Whether U.S. foreign policy is motivated by virtue, power, or material interest needs to be determined

• Whether U.S. policy is determined by security needs or building an empire needs to be determined

• Whether concern about “terrorism” is vital to U.S. policy or the new enemy replacing the demonic force of “communism;” Does the U.S. need demonic enemies to build foreign policy consensus

• Whether the American people have been lied to in the past and present by their leaders is a critical question

• Whether U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War was/is wise and justified needs to be assessed

Realism… what is it in IR theory

• Power: the ability to influence others• Irrelevance of morality and ethics and law– Mearsheimer, Walt, Waltz, Morgantheau, Carr,

Kissenger• Irrelevance of domestic political systems• Why is power the only thing that matters?– Human nature– Anarchic world: no rules

Realism II

• All nations are self-reliant• To preserve peace use Balance of Power– US vs. USSR in Cold War– US—China—Japan in East Asia

• Unipolarity cannot last– Nations will balance against US power

The Cold War Balance of Power 1945-1990

Israel Syria/EgyptEthiopia SomaliaTaiwan ChinaS. Korea N. KoreaS. Viet Nam N. Viet NamW. Berlin E. BerlinW. Germany E. Germany

Britain/France/Japan Poland/Czech

US USSR

Unipolar World

EUJapanRussiaChinaIndia

US

Constructivism, as an approach to International Relations

• Nation-states are not all alike• Political culture shapes foreign policy– Wendt, Ruggie, Ann Marie Clark, Finnemore,

Sikkink• Form of government shapes foreign policy• History shapes foreign policy• Domestic political trends and debates shape

foreign policy

Constructivism II

• States have identity• State identity influences the way states

interact with each other• Examples:

– China sensitivity to any policies of other states that threaten its unity and sovereignty

– US desire to transform the world

Competing Interpretations of the Cold War

• The Cold War- “A situation of intense hostilities between two or more nations that would have led to violence except for “extenuating” circumstances (i.e. the existence of nuclear weapons)

• Cold War played out via

• Confrontational diplomacy• Threats and counter-threats• An arms race• Wars, usually on the periphery of territory of two super

powers; in the Global South

The Bipolar World 1945 to 1989

• Two Superpowers, the United States and the former Soviet Union

• Each the head of an alliance system• United States and the North Atlantic Treaty

Organization (including Great Britain, France, West Germany, Italy, Canada and others)

• The Soviet Union in alliance with East Germany, Poland, Hungary, the former Czechoslovakia, Rumania, and Bulgaria

Competing Interpretations of the Cold War

• Foreign Policies can be characterized as consolidationist (or defensive), expansionist (or opportunistic), or destructionist (out to destroy its enemies)

• Soviet Union United States

• Destructionist Consolidationist• Expansionist Consolidationist• Consolidationist Consolidationist • Expansionist Expansionist• Consolidationist Expansionist• Consolidationist Destructionist

• Collapsed categories: Traditionalists, Realists, Revisionists

Economic Foundations of the Cold War 1

*The global economy in 1945 -former Soviet Union devastated-27 million died in

World War II-Western Europe destroyed-societies rent asunder-US economy grows dramatically from the Depression era to post-World War II period

~1945 US has ¾ of world’s invested capital~1945 US has 2/3 of world’s industrial capacity

~US trade by 1947 four times 1938

Economic Foundations of the Cold War 2

• *US most influential in establishing the post-war economic order:~ the Bretton Woods institutions: the International Monetary

Fund and the World Bank~the trading system: The General Agreements on Trade and

Tariffs (GATT)-became the World Trade Organization in 1995

~the US established the first large foreign assistance program, the Marshall Plan to aid non-Communist Europe for humanitarian AND political reasons (to solve the so-called “dollar gap”)

Economic Foundations of the Cold War 3

*Rise to prominence of Multinational Corporations (MNCs) and International Financial Institutions (banks and investment houses)~by 2000, among the hundred largest

economic institutions in the world, 50 are MNCs; 50 are countries

20th Century Background to the Cold War:1

• World War I• Great Britain declining power: US rising power• The Russian Revolution• Western Powers and Japan send troops to

Russia to overthrow new regime• Rise of fascism in Europe, Japan• Japan invades China: 1931, 1937

20th Century Background to the Cold War: 2

• Munich Agreement: “Peace in Our Time”• German/Soviet Pact 8/39• German invasion of Poland• Germany invades the Soviet Union• US launches oil embargo against Japan, summer 1941• Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor: December 7, 1941-US

declares war• US, Great Britain, Soviet Union form an “unnatural alliance” to

win World War 2• Last collaborative conference of “big three” before the war

ends; Yalta Conference, February, 1945• Cold War hostilities resume: Spring, 1945

Foundations of the Cold War 1945-1946;I

• Last Wartime Cooperation: Yalta Conference-February, 1945• Tensions over Poland April-June, 1945• Post-War Potsdam Conference: July, 1945• Atomic Bombs Dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki• Harry Truman, January, 1946: “I’m tired of babying the Soviets• George Kennan’s “Long Telegram”• Winston Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech• Post war strikes over wages, price controls, rights of workers-

spring, 1946

Foundations of the Cold War: 1946-1948, 2

• Two International Crises: Iran and Greek Civil War

• Truman Speech on International Economics: Baylor University, March 6, 1947 supports “free trade”; “foreign policy and economics “indivisible”

• Truman Doctrine Speech, March 13, 1947 on the “struggle against international communism”

• George Kennan’s Mr. X article on “containment”

• Marshall Plan proposed

• Taft-Hartley anti-labor legislation passed congress

Memorandum by the Director of the Policy Planning Staff (Kennan) to the Secretary of State and the Under Secretary of State (Lovett) [PPS23]

TOP SECRET[WASHINGTON,] February 24, 1948.

When Mr. Acheson first spoke to me about the Planning Staff, he said that he thought its most important function would be to try to trace the lines of development of our foreign policy as they emerged from our actions in the past, and to project them into the future, so that we could see where we were going.

During the first months of the operation of the Staff, I hesitated to undertake any such effort, because I did not feel that any of us had a broad enough view of the problems involved to lend real value to our estimate.I have now made an effort toward a general view of the main problems of our foreign policy, and I enclose it as a Staff paper. It is far from comprehensive and doubtless contains many defects; but it is a first step toward the unified concept of foreign policy which I hope this Staff can someday help to evolve.The paper is submitted merely for information, and does not call for approval. I made no effort to clear it around the Department, since this would have changed its whole character. For this reason, I feel that if any of the views expressed should be made the basis for action in the Department, the views of the offices concerned should first be consulted.This document should properly have included a chapter on Latin America. I have not included such a chapter because I am not familiar with the problems of the area, and the Staff has not yet studied them. Butler, who is taking over for me in my absence, has had long experience with these problems and I hope that while I am away he and the Staff will be able to work up some recommendations for basic policy objectives with regard to the Latin American countries.GEORGE F. KENNAN

Noam Chomsky Response in 2013• PPS 23 was one of a series of policy statements produced under Kennan's direction by his

Policy Planning Staff. The general idea was that the industrial societies should be reconstructed, but within the framework of world order that the US would administer. Other parts of the world were assigned particular "functions" within this system.

• Thus Africa was to be "exploited" (Kennan's phrase, in PPS 23) for the reconstruction of Europe,

• Southeast Asia would "fulfill its major function as a source of raw materials for Japan and Western Europe", etc.

• Of course the industrial world had to be reconstructed. The primary reason was the "dollar gap." The US had a huge manufacturing surplus, and the only countries that could serve as markets and targets for investment were the industrial societies -- that's aside from the obvious geostrategic concerns about world domination.

• Triangular trade relations were therefore established linking the US, Europe, Japan, and their former colonies -- for Japan, as Kennan put it, the US must provide it with "an empire toward the South" -- in other words, its "New Order in Asia," but now under US control. That was the motivating factor for the Indochina wars, from 1950, after the "loss of China".

The Marshall Plan and American Capitalism

• In Europe, the Marshall plan was a bonanza for American capitalists. – According to Chomsky, “The Marshall Plan "set the stage for large

amounts of private U.S. direct investment in Europe," Reagan's Commerce Department observed in 1984, laying the groundwork for the Transnational Corporations (TNCs) that increasingly dominate the world economy. TNCs were "the economic expression" of the "political framework" established by postwar planners, Business Week observed in 1975, lamenting the apparent decline of the golden age of state intervention in which "American business prospered and expanded on overseas orders,...fueled initially by the dollars of the Marshall Plan" and protected from "negative developments" by "the umbrella of American power.”

Foundations of the Cold War: 1948-1950, 3

• Czechoslovakian Communists take power: Congress passes Marshall Plan legislation

• Berlin Blockade and Airlift: June, 1948-49• Harry Truman wins reelection: anti-Cold War

3rd party candidate soundly defeated• NATO formed 1949• Soviet Union detonates its first atomic bomb,

August, 1949

Foundations of the Cold War: 1949-50, 4

• Chinese Communists victorious in long civil war-October, 1949

• Paul Nitze and Dean Acheson draft and distribute National Security Council # 68 (NSC 68) calling for dramatic increase in military spending-military spending, they say should be number one priority

• Senator Joseph McCarthy in Lincoln Day speech, February, 1950 claims 205 “Communists” in the State Department

• Korean War starts-June 25, 1950

The Cold War in Asia;1

• The Cold War started in Europe• Democrats more “Europe-oriented”;

Republicans more “Asia-Firsters”• Three States critical to the rise in the Cold War

in Asia– China– Japan– Korea

The Cold War in Asia: 2

• China– Controlled by European powers 1890s-1920s– Rise of Chinese nationalism (KMT); Chiang Kai-

Shek (Jiang Jieshe) its leader– Emergence of Chinese Communist Party led by

Mao Zedong in the 1920s– After brief merger of KMT, CP a split in 1927; KMT

try to physically exterminate the Communists

The Cold War in Asia:3– Chinese civil war begins– Temporary truces between KMT and Communists in late

1930s after Japanese attack and during World War ll– KMT represents the wealthy; CP the peasants– During World War ll US envoys first condemn Chiang than

praise him; “China hands” critical– After World War ll, civil war resumes– China “falls” to Communism in October, 1949– KMT flees to Formosan Islands, create Taiwan regime– Senator Joseph McCarthy( 1950) accuses Truman of letting

China “fall” to Communism

The Cold War in Asia:4

• Japan– General Douglas MacArthur occupying dictator of

post-war Japan– Japanese economy, polity, culture remade– After Chinese revolution, Japan seen by U.S. as

capitalist bastion in Asia– Soviet Union and China fear any rebuilding and

remilitarization of Japan– Kennan warns of threats in Asia if U.S. continues

to support Japanese reconstruction

The Cold War in Asia: 5

• Korea-Colony of Japan 1910-1945– Split at 38th parallel “temporarily– U.S. resists autonomous movements in South;

selects anti-Communist wealthy politician to rule South Korea (Sygman Rhee)

– Soviets establish Communist government in the North led by Kim-Il-Sung

– Soviets, then U.S. withdraw troops, 1948,1949

The Cold War in Asia:6

– Sygman Rhee threatens to “go North” to “liberate” the Communist north: Kim-Il-Sung makes similar threats to go South

– Secretary of State Dean Acheson (January 1950) says Korean Peninsula not part of U.S. security zone

– Sygman Rhee looses a parliamentary election in May after visit from Republican leader John Foster Dulles. They meet with General MacArthur in Toyko

– Shooting across the 38th parallel both ways continue

The Cold War in Asia:7

• The Korean War:– North Korean troops invade South, June 25, 1950– UN Security Council condemns breach of peace;

General Assembly creates a UN force to defeat invaders below 38th parallel

– General MacArthur, head of UN force, attacks North Korean troops in the South and by September, 1950 North Koreans defeated in the South

The Cold War in Asia 8

– Truman decides to invade North Korea– Chinese enter the war as UN troops approach Yalu River

bordering China– U.S./South Korean/ UN forces battle Chinese and North

Korean forces to stalemate from the winter 1951 to armistice in June, 1953

– McArthur fired by Truman in spring, 1951 after he called for attacking China and using atomic weapons

– Truman chooses “limited war” strategy to avoid direct U.S./Soviet confrontation

The Cold War in Asia: 9

• Republicans criticize “limited war” strategy; Eisenhower elected president saying “I will go to Korea.”

• Criticisms from revisionists• Impacts of war on long-term U.S foreign policy– U.S. economy– U.S. defense spending and NSC 68– making U.S. Cold War policy permanent– Korean War institutionalizes, militarizes, globalizes Cold

War – The Korean people