America's foreign relations tradition, for all its successes, has not always served the American people well. Utilizing tradition as a framework of analysis of the historic American approach to foreign affairs, this book critically examines the country's international conduct over time, leading to a number of provocative and controversial conclusions. The first section deals with ideas, ideals, and ideology in American history that provide a context and value structure that have long conditioned the American people's conception of the world. The second part critically examines the problematic American national style of interacting with others. The nation's parochial approach to problem-solving is explicated in the third section. The fourth part centers upon the country's historic isolationist-interventionist impulse-a two-sided, often contradictory dynamic. The fifth section is an extended analysis of the country's approach to alliance-building after World War II as a case study of its approach to foreign affairs in the past. The final section proposes that America's traditional values and decision-making style have often been incompatible, and this contradiction has brought forth the exorcising role of violence in American's relationships with others.

An analysis and critical commentary on the general approach of American foreign policy toward Soviet Russia during the formative years of the Cold War. Whitcomb contends that the United States must bear a major share of the responsibility for the endless litany of conflicts, crises, and military confrontations that came to mark our foreign relations after 1945. Whitcomb shows that the American foreign affairs tradition led the country to entertain persistent misperceptions of the realities of the international arena in which it had to function. At the same time, Whitcomb points to the incompatability between many of the nation's most cherished values and the habits of action that Americans exhibited in their relationships with other states. An important post-revisionist view, this book will be of interest to American foreign policy for scholars and students alike.

America's foreign relations "tradition," for all its successes, has not always served the American people well. Utilizing "tradition" as a framework of analysis of the historic American approach to foreign affairs, this book critically examines the country's international conduct over time, leading to a number of provocative and controversial conclusions. The first section deals with ideas, ideals, and ideology in American history that provide a context and value structure that have long conditioned the American people's conception of the world. The second part critically examines the problematic American national style of interacting with others. The nation's parochial approach to problem-solving is explicated in the third section. The fourth part centers upon the country's historic "isolationist-interventionist impulse"--a two-sided, often contradictory dynamic. The fifth section is an extended analysis of the country's approach to alliance-building after World War II as a case study of its approach to foreign affairs in the past. The final section proposes that America's traditional values and decision-making style have often been incompatible, and this contradiction has brought forth the exorcising role of violence in American's relationships with others.