The United States has looked inward throughout most of its history,
preferring to avoid "foreign entanglements," as George Washington
famously advised. After World War II, however, Americans became more
inclined to break with the past and take a prominent place on the
world stage. Much has been written about the influential figures who
stood at the center of this transformation, but remarkably little
attention has been paid to Arthur H. Vandenberg (1884–1951), who
played a crucial role in moving the nation from its isolationist past
to an internationalist future.
Vandenberg served as a U.S. senator from Michigan from 1928 to 1951
and was known in his early career for his fervent
anti-interventionism. After 1945, he became heavily involved in the
establishment of the United Nations and was a key player in the
development of NATO. As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee during 1947 and 1948, Vandenberg helped rally support for
President Truman's foreign policy—including the Marshall Plan—and
his leadership contributed to a short-lived era of congressional
bipartisanship regarding international relations.
In_ The Conversion of Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg_, Lawrence S.
Kaplan offers the first critical biography of the distinguished
statesman. He demonstrates how Vandenberg's story provides a window on
the political and cultural changes taking place in America as the
country assumed a radically different role in the world, and makes a
seminal contribution to the history of U.S. foreign policy during the
initial years of the Cold War.
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From Isolation to International Engagement
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780813160603
Publisert
2015
Utgiver
University Press of Kentucky
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter