Trade or Aid? American Isolationists and East-West Trade, 1950–51

Abstract

After protracted negotiations lasting two years the Truman administration finally managed to gain international support for a comprehensive economic containment strategy against the Soviet Union. During 1950–51, however, the administration encountered domestic opposition to its export control policy from Congress. Through the Mundt Amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act of 1948 and the Export Control Act of 1949, the legislature possessed significant powers in the field of East-West trade. Perturbed by the Truman administration’s foreign policy, isolationist representatives began to protest about American international commitments and economic and military assistance programmes, and sought to make aid to leading powers in Western Europe contingent on their sharing with the United States the burden of containing communism throughout the globe.KeywordsNational SecurityForeign AssistanceExport ControlAmerican IsolationistSoviet BlocThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.