AP U.S. History › Representative Viewpoints in U.S. Foreign Policy from 1899 to the Present
Who among the following people was not responsible for the imperialist expansion of teh United States in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries?
William Taft
Theodore Roosevelt
William McKinley
Woodrow Wilson
Grover Cleveland
The correct answer is Grover Cleveland. Taft, Roosevelt and McKinley all initiated conflicts or invasions that advanced American interests abroad. All three believed that the United States needed to expand its influence around the world to serve national interests. Wilson, who was staunchly against European Imperialism and ideologically opposed to America’s interference in foreign nations, still managed to send American troops into Nicaragua in 1914 to occupy the country and Haiti and the Dominican Republic in the years immediately after. Thus, Wilson can be seen as an Imperialist in practice if not in ideology. Grover Cleveland, on the other hand, came to the Presidency in the years shortly before Imperialist ideology took over the office, and once out of office he was a devoted member of the American Anti-Imperialist League. The Anti-Imperialist League believed that Imperialism violated the republican principles that America had been founded on, and they fiercely objected to any forced occupation of foreign lands.
"It must be the policy of the US to support the free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or outside pressures."
The above quote can most reliably be attributed to which President?
Richard Nixon
George W. Bush
George Bush
Dwight Eisenhower
Harry S. Truman
The so called “Truman Doctrine” argued that it was the responsibility of the post-war United States to support the extension or maintenance of freedom, personal liberty and democratic ideals throughout the world. The quote comes from a speech given by Truman, to Congress, when he was calling for funds to support those people in Turkey and Greece who favored democracy.
"Speak softly and carry a big stick."
This phrase refers to which American president's foreign policy of civil negotiations with the threat of military might?
Theodore Roosevelt
Franklin Roosevelt
Harry Truman
Woodrow Wilson
Dwight Eisenhower
First used in a speech before he assumed the presidency, Theodore Roosevelt's Big Stick diplomacy was his belief that intelligent forethought must be coupled with military muscle.
The containment policy during the Cold War referred to America's and its allies’ attempts to do what?
Keeping Communism from spreading further than it already had.
Fighting to erase Communism from the world map.
Allowing Communists to be elected by popular consent.
Preventing Communist governments from taking control in previously neutral nations.
Allowing Communism to spread throughout the globe.
Most associated with the presidencies of Truman, Kennedy, and Johnson, containment was an attempt to stop the spread of Communism to countries where it was not currently the form of government. The other policies advocated at the time were rollback, attempting to actually reverse new communist government victories, and appeasement, which sought to make concessions with Communist governments to avoid all out conflict.
The America First Committee .
opposed America getting involved in World War Two
wanted additional restrictions on the number of people who could immigrate to the United States
called for economic reforms and helped elect Franklin D. Roosevelt
pressured Roosevelt to declare war on the Axis powers in 1940
deplored the influence of religion and Catholicism on United States government policy
The America First Committee was set up in 1939 and 1940 in order to prevent the United States from becoming embroiled in the “European war.” The committee argued that President Roosevelt was deceiving the American people with promises of neutrality. They argued that Roosevelt was aiding the Allied powers and drawing America closer and closer to conflict with Germany. The America First Committee reflected the general mood of the American public in 1939—the vast majority of whom wished to avoid conflict; however, with the Pearl Harbor attacks in 1941, the America First Committee rapidly disbanded and American public opinion reversed.
The Truman Doctrine is best summarized as __________.
providing financial and diplomatic assistance to countries under threat from Communism
assisting any Latin American nation which was on the verge of having a Communist government
intervening militarily in any conflict between Communist and non-Communist troops
providing debt relief to war ravaged European countries after World War II
supporting the new nation of Israel in its conflicts against its Arab neighbors
The Truman Doctrine was announced by President Harry Truman to a joint session of Congress on March 12, 1947. Truman was specifically responding to political unrest in Greece and Turkey, where it appeared highly likely that Communist governments would take power. Truman asserted that the U.S. would financially assist in any way it could to prevent Communism from spreading, but would nit be involved militarily.
At the turn of the 20th century, what policy did the United States adopt in order to expand its influence and involvement in China?
The US adopted an "Open Door Policy" toward China, which it made explicit to all the other Western powers. This policy intended to keep China open to trade with all countries on an equal basis, preventing any one nation from gaining hegemony over the country. It called upon each of the major powers to refrain from interfering with any treaty port or any vested interest, to permit Chinese authorities to collect tariffs on an equal basis, and to refrain from showing favoritism towards their own nationals with regard to transportation tariffs.
Prompted by a zealous lobby of nativists who feared the influx of Chinese immigration, the US adopted the Chinese American Exclusion Act, prohibiting naturalized Chinese Americans from holding certain jobs in the United States, in hopes that they would return to China.
The United States allied itself with the European Spheres of Influence policy, which sought to use industrial might to influence Chinese culture to become more open to Western sensibilities.
The US adopted a highly isolationist stance, hoping to prevent China from presenting a threat to American dominance in Eastern trade.
The United States allied itself closely with investors from other Western powers to push the Chinese government to accept a liberalized free trade policy that was friendly to foreign interests.
The United States was eager to expand its trade markets, and wanted access to Chinese ports. Various European nations and Japan had succeeded in carving out exclusive trading rights to certain key ports in China, which allowed them to block entire regions from US business. The thriving climate of US economic expansionism encouraged policies such as this one, which was proclaimed by Secretary of State John Hay in 1899, in order to open up all “exclusive” ports to American business, and eliminate the granting of favoritism toward certain countries at Chinese ports.
The Open Door policy was rooted in the desire of U.S. businesses to trade with Chinese markets, though it also tapped the deep-seated sympathies of those who opposed imperialism, with the policy pledging to protect China's sovereignty and territorial integrity from partition.
The Domino Theory suggests that _________________.
Once one country in a region succumbs to Communism other neighboring countries will be more likely to succumb as well
Tax breaks afforded to the wealthy will lead to a ripple effect whereby the poor are paid more
Helping to fix the economies of Western European nations is the best policy to help promote global economic prosperity
Once a district changes its support from Democrats to Republicans than neighboring districts will be significantly more likely to follow suit
None of these
The Domino Theory was an integral part of United States anti-Communist policy in the decades following World War Two. Many American politicians maintained that if Communism was allowed to spread it would have a domino effect which would cause other countries to adopt Communism also. It was provided as justification for numerous anti-Communist wars, campaigns and embargos - most notably, throughout Central America and South-East Asia.
How did the Nye Committee affect America’s involvement in global conflict in the 1930s?
It suggested that the American military was the strongest and best armed in the world and therefore the United States should not fear military intervention in Europe or Asia
It stated that United States banks and corporations, in order to gain personal profit, had tricked the American people into entering World War One and therefore the United States should remain a neutral state in future conflict
It declared that Hitler represented a threat to the entirety of the free world and, as a result, the United States had a moral imperative to enter the war on the side of the allies
It argued that the British and French had a very small chance to resist the might of the German military and therefore the United States should remain neutral so as to avoid joining the losing side
It contended that the Japanese were preparing a series of large scale attacks aimed at disrupting American economic might and that the government should enlarge the armed forces so as not to be caught unprepared
The Nye Report was a Senate report issued during World War One that stated that American banks and corporations had tricked the American people into supporting a war so that they could gain profit from the sale of arms, post-war reconstruction projects and the elimination of foreign competitors. The report was widely quoted as a very significant reason for avoiding conflict in Europe and Asia in the 1930s and persisted into the early 1940s, as a reason not to join World War Two on the side of the allied forces
William Taft’s foreign policy is best characterized by the belief that .
American investment abroad would secure global stability
America was best served economically and politically by remaining isolationist
the American military should be deployed to protect interests in foreign nations
the “civilized” nations of the world had a duty to assist the Third World
the United States should spread diplomacy throughout Europe and Asia
The foreign policy initiatives enacted during the Presidency of William Taft are generally referred to under the phrase “Dollar Diplomacy.” Taft believed that, in order to advance America’s economic and diplomatic interests and encourage global stability, the United States should encourage private American investment in foreign nations.