America the Hesitant Helper

Abstract

Abstract This chapter highlights stark reversals in US foreign policy in the pre–World War II era, moving from its previously imperialist ambitions to isolationist tendencies, and then finally to a hesitant helper of its European allies. American political and economic isolationism fanned the flames of rising fascist movements around the world, which ultimately dragged the reluctant United States from its political hibernation. This era concludes with the United States extending its tools of war, trade, and diplomacy far beyond its neighborhood to come to the rescue of Europe to end another world conflagration. Across the Western world, this era propelled the isolationist United States from that of an emergency ally to that of an often-benign great power, ready to act on the world stage. Key historical events include interventions in Central America, interventions in the Far East, the impact of the global economic crisis, isolationism, the rise of fascism, as well as World War II.