History of American Foreign Relations

Sauvons les Bébés: Child Health and U.S. Humanitarian Aid in the First World War Era

by Julia Irwin

Bulletin of the History of Medicine (2012)

From 1917 to 1923, the American Red Cross organized an array of long-term child health projects in Europe as part of... more From 1917 to 1923, the American Red Cross organized an array of long-term child health projects in Europe as part of its larger wartime and post-war humanitarian efforts. Across the continent, the organization established child health clinics, better baby shows, playgrounds, fresh air camps, and courses for women on infant and child hygiene. Hundreds of U.S. doctors, nurses, and other child welfare professionals traveled to Europe to administer these programs. These activities call attention to American efforts to reform the health of European youth and, in so doing, to reshape European medicine and European society more broadly. Moreover, they suggest the importance of child-centered medical relief—and the history of medicine more broadly—to the history of U.S. foreign relations.

Forced to Cooperate: the Brandt Government and the Nixon Administration on the Road to Helsinki

by Giovanni Bernardini

in P. Villaume & O.A. Westad (Eds.), “Perforating the Iron Curtain. European Détente, Transatlantic Relations, and the Cold War, 1965-1985”, Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2010, pp. 79-100, ISBN 978-87-635-2588-6

The subject of this chapter is the analysis of the different, and substantially diverging, strategies that the Nixon... more The subject of this chapter is the analysis of the different, and substantially diverging, strategies that the Nixon Administration of the United States and the Brandt Government of the Federal Republic of Germany deployed in their first approach to a proposal for a conference on security in Europe during the early 1970s, especially concerning the problem of multilateral negotiations on military forces reductions in Europe. The sources available today at the German and American archives confirm that this topic was among the most debated inside the two respective governments, as in the course of the bilateral debates and in the wide range of multilateral (transatlantic) fora. If détente “easily [came] to represent a challenge to the stability of American-European relations”, the problem of a redefinition of a new “security” for Europe involving a broader, continuous dialogue between the countries of the two blocs proved to be the most potentially divisive between the United States and its (until then) most loyal ally in Europe, the FRG.
Moreover, the issue of a conference on European security represents a useful fil rouge in the analysis of the relations between the two countries during 1969–1972 for these main reasons:

1) initially, the proposal of a conference came neither from the two countries examined, nor from other partners of the Alliance: it was actually a long-standing Soviet aspiration, raised with greater emphasis by the “Budapest Appeal” of the Warsaw Pact at the beginning of 1969. Thanks to the sources available today, this “external” genesis allows us to understand the impact that the proposal had on the two administrations since its new launch;
2) however, during the age of the détente, the issue of European security did not represent a completely unexplored field, neither for the new American administration nor for the Social-Liberal coalition in Bonn. The “Budapest Appeal” arrived a few months after the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the troops of the Warsaw Pact, but also after the transatlantic tensions of the 1960s, signified by the exit of France from the NATO integrated command, the failure of the Multilateral Force project and the fear of a “condominium” between the United States and the Soviet Union over Europe, especially after the two Superpowers signed the Non Proliferation Treaty. Thus, the debate following the Budapest Appeal did not erase but, on the contrary, quickened and emphasized the projects, the aspirations and the fears of the two governments;
3) projects and aspirations that, in their turn, were born out of a realistic evaluation of the material conditions in which the two countries found themselves at the beginning of the ’70s: the real or supposed decline of the United States as well as the consolidation of western German economic power represented important elements in the approach to the issue of European security, especially when the problem of a fairer share of the burden for the common defence was another source of tensions in transatlantic relations. The reduction of these expenses was a major thrust towards Détente;
4) finally, the interest of the debate over a conference on European security mainly comes from the broad space-time coordinates involved by the issue, including a wide spectrum of further subjects concerning the relations between the United States and western Europe, and of these within communist bloc. The spatial dimension, attempting to cover the whole continent in a sole assembly, represented a substantial innovation with regard to the situation generated by the Cold War, full of new and stimulating opportunities (political, cultural and economic), but also of risks and doubts on the survival of the western Alliance and concerning a possible common direction towards Détente.

“Winning ‘Hearts and Minds’: American Imperial Designs of the Early Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries”

by Adam Burns

In 1898, following the short Spanish-American War, the United States was left in possession of several formerly... more In 1898, following the short Spanish-American War, the United States was left in possession of several formerly Spanish-run insular colonies. Uniquely, the US chose to annex some occupied islands with neither the promise of potential statehood, nor a timeframe or even a guarantee for their future independence.
William H. Taft was appointed the first US Civil Governor of the Philippines in 1901. Instead of independence, Taft envisaged a long-term imperial relationship between the United States and the Philippines. Facing guerrilla warfare, Taft formulated a 'policy of attraction' to win over the Filipino population to US rule and create a lasting imperial bond.This included the building of schools, involvement of Filipinos in the government of the Philippines and a sustained campaign to lower US trade barriers.
The degree of commitment involved in Taft's policy of attraction alarmed many US politicians, and in 1916 a promise of independence was given to the Philippines. Independence came about in 1946. Taft's policy could have provided an alternative precedent to that which US administrations have followed: a relatively brief period of nation-building, followed by a relatively rapid withdrawal.The Filipino experience offers intriguing comparisons with future US intervention around the world, including Iraq and Afghanistan.

Regimes in Motion: The Kennedy Administration and Indonesia's New Frontier, 1960-1962, Diplomatic History 33 no. 1 (2009)

by David Webster

Review of “The Other Plumbers Unit: The Dissent Channel of the U.S. State Department.” By Hannah Gurman

by Seth Offenbach

Reviewed for H-Diplo Listserv

“Defending Freedom in Vietnam: A Conservative Dilemma”

by Seth Offenbach

,” in The Right Side of the Sixties: Reexamining Conservatism’s Decade of Transformation, Palgrave Macmillan, Laura Jane Gifford & Daniel K. Williams, Eds., 2012.

Defining and Teaching Grand Strategy

by Tim Sayle

“Defining and Teaching Grand Strategy,” The Telegram, No. 4 (January 2011).

China Tuned Out: American Radio In East Asia, 1919-1941

by Michael Krysko

My book, "American Radio in China: International Encounters with Technology and Communications, 1919 - 41" (Palgrave-MacMillan, 2011) is much improved over the original dissertation (at least I think so), with a significant amount of new material not included in the original dissertation.

'Gibberish' On The Air: Foreign Language Radio And American Broadcasting, 1920-1940

by Michael Krysko

Forbidden Frequencies: Sino-American Relations and Chinese Broadcasting During the Interwar Era

by Michael Krysko

A revised version of this article is now a chapter in my book "American Radio in China: International Encounters with Technology and Communications, 1919 - 41" (2011)

Homeward Bound: Shortwave Broadcasting and American Mass Media in East Asia on the Eve of the Pacific War

by Michael Krysko

Subsequent to the publishing of "Homeward Bound" in 2005, I expanded the article into two separate chapters in my book "American Radio in China: International Encounters with Technology and Communications, 1919 - 41" (2011). The first half of the original "Homeward Bound" article is now a stand-alone chapter that expands on my initial exploration of early US shortwave broadcasting to China (specifically station KGEI) by more explicitly situating it within the larger context of other American mass media and trans-Pacific communications that linked China and the United States during the late 1930s and early 1940s. The second half of the original article is now a stand-alone chapter on American radio news and journalism in China, with a particular emphasis on its role in inflaming US-Japanese tensions in the on the eve of the Pacific War. In the book chapter, the article's original emphasis on Japan's jamming of KGEI's news programs was paired with an exploration into Japanese actions against American-owned stations and newscasters in China, with a particular emphasis on Shanghai-based XMHA and its controversial and vehemently anti-Japanese newscaster Carroll Alcott.

Power Play 1979: Modern Conflict and Responses in the Middle East

by Hamid Poorsafar

Hamid Poorsafar, (Harry M. Cleaver, Jr.), Department of Economics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78713

Field: Political History

The year 1979 was among the most tumultuous, and important, in the history of the modern Middle East. 1979 begins with... more The year 1979 was among the most tumultuous, and important, in the history of the modern Middle East. 1979 begins with the final stages of the Iranian Revolution in February then followed by a monumental peace treaty between adversaries, Egypt and Israel in March. Then in July, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the leader of Pakistan, is executed entailing a defining shift in the Pakistani state, followed by the Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan in December. This paper delves into why one specific region experiences an intensity of conflict and turmoil within a short period of time. Beginning with the latter part of the Iranian Revolution, this paper shows how the end stages of the Iranian revolution spurred a geo-political power struggle between countries in the Middle East and between the United States and the Soviet Union. This paper will focus on original sources (English and Persian), recently declassified documents, and relevant articles and studies to show how each event sequentially shaped the other; how each is both constituted and constituting. The understanding provided will show how one tension, one conflict within the Middle East had implications for the others that followed and for the entire world.