AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY (1933-1941) This resear

This research paper discusses the guiding principles of American foreign policy during the first eight years of the New Deal administration of President Franklin Roosevelt (FDR). During the early and mid-1930s, the formulation and implementation of United States foreign policy were decisively influenced by the imperatives of domestic recovery from the Great Depression and the preservation of an internal political consensus in favor of FDR's domestic reforms. Isolationist sentiment intensified in the mid-1930s and hindered FDR's efforts to mobilize internal support for a more assertive foreign policy vis-a-vis fascist aggression by Italy and Germany and external expansion by Japanese militarism. After 1936, domestic opposition to more forceful intervention by the United States in European and Asian affairs acted as a severe constraint on the administration while at the same time channeling much of its foreign policy into relatively ineffective and at times devious directions. As the Nazi threat came to be perceived by FDR as more imminent and threatening to American security interests, American foreign policy in fits and starts moved toward more militant opposition to fascist expansionism; however, FDR's keen instincts for fathoming the mood of the American electorate and Congress caused the administration to move cautiously toward a more assertive foreign policy in both Europe and Asia.

Introduction. Dallek noted that FDR

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ms sales to both sides, which had the effect of benefiting the forces of Francisco Franco who received lavish arms supplies from Germany and Italy. Prompted by Germany's entry into the Rhineland in spring 1936, its absorption of Austria in the spring of 1937 and the Japanese invasion of northern China in 1937, Roosevelt, following his re-election in 1936, made his Quarantine Speech in October 1937 calling on peace-loving nations to make "a concerted effort at opposition" to the fascist powers; however, when public and Congressional opinion failed to support the tenor of his remarks, he backtracked into evasions (Brandon 513). In 1938 FDR told his speechwriter Samuel Rosenman that it was "a terrible thing to look over your shoulder when you are trying to lead-to find no one there" (Fleming 67). Public opinion polls showed that at the time war broke out in Europe in September 1939, 94 percent of Americans wished to avoid involvement (Brandon 516-517). 1938-1941 Even though FDR and his closest advisers became increasingly concerned that Adolf Hitler's takeovers and eventually overt aggression against Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland represented a serious menace to the United States, their hands were largely tied by the continui
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Approximate Word count = 2743
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)