‘Roosevelt trades destroyers for sea bases. Tells Congress he acted on his own authority. Britain pledges never to yield or sink fleet.’
This quotation from the New York Times, 17 September 1940, shows the boldness of Roosevelt’s actions. He ‘acted on his own authority’, which is unusual for a President as they would normally seek approval from others in their cabinet. Churchill and Roosevelt reaffirmed their positions as allies in the ‘Atlantic Charter’ of 1941. Once again, this shows that Roosevelt was a man confident with what he was doing. It also shows that during these few years, the President was extremely important when it came to changes in foreign policy. Without Roosevelt’s blunt views on war, foreign policy was unlikely to change from the ‘neutrality act’ in America. Therefore the President in this case was very important in regards to changes in foreign policy.
However, some would say that the change in foreign policy and the formation of the ‘Lend-Lease’ program was not because of President Roosevelt but because of the bleak situation of Britain during this time. Churchill continually requested support from Roosevelt during these years with numerous forms of communication and a letter. Some would therefore say that the President was not important in this change in foreign policy; rather it was Britain’s bad situation and Congress’s decision to help them. To add to this, the war was an important factor as to why American foreign policy changed and Congress may have been acting in self-defense by passing the ‘Lend-Lease’ program rather than Roosevelt making an important decision. From this, I can say that in some aspects the President was not important in change to foreign policy in comparison to other factors
When Roosevelt died, Truman took over the Presidency. He had to firstly deal with the conclusion of the Second World War and secondly had to decide what to do with the conflict with Japan. The Second World War had almost reached a conclusion by the time Truman gained Presidency and it was not long before Germany surrendered. However, the war with Japan seemed far from over. Truman decided to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki resulting in the Japanese Government surrendering and World War 2 to be ended, however moral or immoral the bombings were. These first actions of Truman showed his unsparing attitude from the start of his Presidency. Initially, we can see that the President’s character was extraordinarily important in regards to changes in the foreign policy and the ending of the war.
However, changes in the foreign policy which followed may not be linked to the President even though they happened under his name and can possibly be tagged to the increasing growth of Communism.
The Truman Doctrine was delivered in a speech to Congress on 12th March 1947 and showed the US policy of containment and was delivered as a ‘vow to defend the free democracies of Europe’. This was pretty much due to communist expansion as Greece was in the middle of a civil war with the opposite parties being royalist and communists. And Turkey shared a border with Russia. Although, Congress was initially against the idea of support with a strong belief of isolationism still in some parts, after the doctrine, they soon supported Truman and gave him the finances he needed. This definitely shows that the President was important in changing foreign policy in the way that he changed Congress’s opinion to aid him to reduce Soviet control.
‘Truman wanted to assist free peoples in Europe to resist outside pressures to turn communist…”
This quotation from source B shows that Truman had power to change ‘outside pressures’ and was therefore important in changing the foreign policy to suit this. He openly did this by bringing about the Truman Doctrine.
The Marshall Plan that accompanied the Truman Doctrine came about on 5th June 1947 to provide aid through dollar grants which could be used to purchase food, raw materials and industrial machinery from the USA. This would provide economic aid to Western Europe after the war and stop communism USSR expansion. This shows that although Truman’s actions were important in relation to changing foreign policy between the years 1940-1960, the secretary of State had a similar amount of power on the changes to the foreign policy. This means that the President was on an even comparison tot eh secretary of state when it came to changes in US foreign policy, and therefore it means the President was not that important to changes in foreign policy.
With Truman also involving himself and the US into Korea and failing miserably, it showed that Truman’s influence and grasp on US foreign policy was minor and not important.
Although the Truman Doctrine was originated by Truman himself and meant that he made an important change in foreign policy, the factors that led to it actually show that the President was actually not that important when it came to changes to the US foreign policy.
A factor which may have led to the change in foreign policy may have been because of ‘McCarthyism’ and the ‘Second Red Scare’-an intense time of anti-communism in America.
Communism had grown and the US knew this and feared from it, and this is why the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan were put into place. This is when the origins of the Cold War can be traced to. As Stalin wanted to include Baltic States under Soviet boundaries US-Soviet relations became worse and worse. The US therefore began to set out in controlling Stalin and his Soviet expansion.
From this I can say that Communism and Stalin is an enormously important factor in regards to changes in foreign policy and the US began to adapt its foreign policy to control this expansion. Therefore, from this I can see that Truman’s importance as President and changes in foreign policy is not very substantial in comparison to that of the importance of Stalin and Communism. This can be seen through the united effort in controlling communism by other members of Congress such as McCarthy and Marshall making the Presidents importance in changing foreign policy equal to that of other factors.
The final President to take Presidency in this period between 1940 and1960 was Eisenhower. Eisenhower’s Presidency was seen to be a relative period of stability and no major changes to foreign policy happened apart from the ‘New Look’ on the inherited policy of Containment from Truman. It was principally the same policy and its objective was ‘to prevent the further expansion of soviet communism outside of the areas where it was already established’. As a President, Eisenhower was not important in the development of changes in foreign policy in the years 1940 to 1960. His only significant change was his threat to use nuclear weapons. He threatened China with nuclear action in an attempt to ending the Korean War. In relation to the factor of Stalin’s death and new negotiations from Khrushchev, Eisenhower did not play an important role in development of changes to US foreign policy as he did not help these US-Soviet relations get back on track.
In conclusion, the importance of the President’s in relation to other factors such as the state of Europe, the Communist threat and Stalin in the development of changes in foreign policy in the years 1940-1960 is insignificant and not important. These other factors contribute to the Presidents decision on changes to foreign policy and therefore they are more important.
