CONSISTENCIES IN POLITICAL RESPONSES BY THE UNITED STATES TO THREATS: COMPARING POLICIES IN THE 1940S WITH THOSE IN 2003
In a paper presented at the November 2002 Convention of the International Studies AssociationùNortheast, John W. Dietrich (1) delineated the similarities in the policy responses by the Bush Administration to perceived and actual threats to the national security of the United States in the 2001-2003 period to the policy responses by the Truman Administration in the late-1940s. While recognizing policy differences between the Truman Administration and the second Bush Administration dictated largely by (a) differences in the perceived and actual threats prevailing in the two periods, (b) differences between the two periods in relation to the sources of perceived and real threats, and (c) dramatically different geopolitical structures that characterize the two periods, Dietrich (2-3), contended that consistencies in approaches to policy development, implementation, and potential outcomes link the two periods.
One of the consistencies linking the Truman Administration and the second Bush Administration noted by Dietrich (2) is the influence of domestic interest groups on the development and implementation of foreign policy. A second important consistency is the position of the Administrations in both the late-1940s and in the 2001-2003 period that the President has the authority to develop and implement policies to respond to threats to national security without first securing the express approval of the Congress for such actions.
The essential policy developed and implemented by the Truman Administration in response to the threats (real and perceived) to the national security of the United States posed by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was the containment policy (Record 5). The essential policy developed and implemented by the second bush Administration in response to threats (real and percei...