American Foreign Policy in 1950s 1970s - Essay Example

Perhaps, the United States could have substantially reduced effectiveness of the Soviet propaganda, but the first obscure signs of the threat remained unnoticed by American politicians. As a result, US foreign policy during the period between the Korean and Vietnamese wars can be characterized as unbalanced and short-sighted. By the mid-1950s the Soviets failed to restore the pre-war balance of powers, but the gap was gradually closing. The Soviets created nuclear weapons, and continued to rebuild the ruined economy.

As a result, the United States lost the opportunity to impose its will on Europe in general and the USSR in particular: economic and technological parity with the USSR made it obvious that the need for some other options to compete. Both, the United States and the Soviets focused upon bringing international discredit upon each other: the war of ideologies began (Glynn, 1992). For the sake of objectiveness, it is necessary to admit that the Soviets could hardly be accused of much defamation: the free American society provided the world with such calling examples of civil rights violation that there was simply no need to defame.

Keeping in mind that the United States actively participated in the Human Rights treaty which proclaimed racial, religious, and sexual equality the major value of the forthcoming epoch, ongoing domestic discrimination severely damaged international image of the country (Borstelmann, 2002). Some experts noticed the danger in the very beginning of the Cold War, but their warning remained unheard. Thus, Secretary of State Dean Acheson wrote in 1947, "The existence of discrimination against minority groups in this country has an adverse effect upon our relations with other countries.

We are reminded over and over by some foreign newspapers and spokesmen, that our treatment of various minorities leaves much to be desired.. We will have better international relations when those reasons for suspicion and resentment have been removed" (Dudziak, 2000, p. 80). International situation in the late 1950s - early 1960s turned domestic discrimination into literally vital issue that might affect the future of the whole world. World War II triggered the anti-colonial movement in Asia and Africa, and the balance of powers in the world - given approximate parity between the communist and capitalist blocks - depended upon what form of political establishment those new countries would choose.

And again, in the 1950s several politicians tried to draw attention of the federal government to the link between discriminatory domestic policies of racial segregation and failure of the American efforts to extend political influence over new Asian and African states (Borstelmann, 2002). In 1952, Chester Bowles, U.S. Ambassador to India, pronounced a speech at Yale University in which he clearly specified the causes of repeated failures those regions: "A year, or even a week in Asia is enough to convince any perceptive American that the colored peoples of Asia and Africa, who total two-thirds of the world's population,