The ethics of major American foreign policies

1980 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
American Foreign Policy ◽  
World War ◽  
Greek Thought ◽  
The Family ◽  
Foreign Policies ◽  
City States ◽  
The City

The theologian Reinhold Neibuhr oftentimes warned that moralists who entered the foreign policy sphere were likely to be more destructive of a nation's ideals than were cynical realists. Evidently he feared that those who lacked a sense of the limits of foreign policy would proceed as if the values and goods which were attainable in the more intimate communities of the family, the locality and the nation were attainable in the international community as well. Whatever Neibuhr's quarrels and debates with classical Greek thought, he was at one with Plato and Aristotle and their present day followers in believing that justice could be more effectively pursued by the smaller communities, such as the city states. He insisted on a recognition of the differences between such communities and the major present day world powers. From World War II until his death, he wrote more about foreign policy than any other aspect of public policy. He wrote scores of articles, some published in less prominent journals, about American foreign policy and its moral basis.

Leslie Crombie. 10 June 1923 — 3 August 1999

2001 ◽  
Vol 47 ◽  
pp. 125-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald Pattenden
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Grammar School ◽  
Legal Practice ◽  
World War ◽  
Isle Of Wight ◽  
School Certificate ◽  
The Family ◽  
Part Time ◽  
The City ◽  
Three Sisters

Leslie Crombie was born in York on 10 June 1923, the second eldest, and only boy, of Walter Crombie and Gladys (née Clarkson). On his father's side his great-grandfather had kept a tobacconist shop in York and his grandfather, George, had founded a prosperous legal practice in the City of York. On his mother's side, Leslie's great–grandfather originated from London and settled in York after helping to build the York Railway Station. Leslie's father qualified as a solicitor and practised law in his grandfather George's office. However, he disliked the profession and, after his marriage and the death of his father, Walter passed over the practice to his brother Norman and took the lease of a hotel in the Isle of Wight. Unfortunately, the hotel did not prosper and was given up after a few years, and the family, which included Leslie's three sisters, Ivy, June and Molly, moved to Portsmouth. Although Leslie's father had a small allowance from his brother Norman and the legal practice in York, and he had various small intermittent incomes from teaching, the family was desperately poor during the 1930s. Leslie received little encouragement from his parents, but he passed the 11+ examination and entered Portsmouth Northern Grammar School in 1934, where he was awarded a very respectable School Certificate when he was 16 years old. However, it was now 1939 and World War II was about to start, and his school was evacuated to Winchester. With poor living conditions and little facilities for study, the young Leslie was determined to take a job and study part-time. He was appointed in 1940 as an assistant in the analytical laboratory of Timothy Whites and Taylor at their head office in Portsmouth under the supervision of Ron Gillham, who greatly influenced his further career; he was paid 13 shillings and 6 pence (in decimal terms, 67½pence) per week. In the evenings, Leslie studied at Portsmouth Municipal College for a London University Intermediate BSc. Alas, after a heavy bombing raid in January 1941, Timothy Whites and Taylor's laboratories were removed from the map, along with a great deal of the centre of Portsmouth—but fortunately not the MunicipalCollege.

Nixon's Grand Design

Worldview ◽  
1971 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 9-11
Author(s):  
Donald Brandon
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
American Foreign Policy ◽  
Pearl Harbor ◽  
World War ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The World ◽  
Grand Design

For a generation now, America has played a significant role in world affairs. Until Pearl Harbor a reluctant belligerent in World War II, this country was also slow to respond to the challenge of the Soviet Union in the immediate aftermath of that gigantic conflict. But for almost twenty-five years American Presidents have been more or less guided by the policy of “containment.” Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson all introduced variations on the multiple themes of the policy adopted by Harry Truman. Yet each concluded that the world situation allowed no reasonable alternative to an activist American foreign policy in most areas of the globe.

Rejected Architect and Master Builder: George Kennan, Dean Acheson and Postwar Europe

1996 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 437-468
Author(s):  
Wilson D. Miscamble
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
American Foreign Policy ◽  
German Unification ◽  
Nuclear Forces ◽  
World War ◽  
Postwar Europe ◽  
Master Builder ◽  
The Relationship

This article uses the relationship between George Kennan and Dean Acheson as a lens to track a classic debate over the main lines of postwar American foreign policy, especially in regard to Europe and over such related issues as negotiations with the Soviets, German unification, and the size of and necessity for American conventional and nuclear forces. It clarifies that Kennan did not play the role of powerful architect whose planning provided the blueprint and instructions for building the structure of U.S. policy in Europe. Dean Acheson proved the essential builder of the structures which provided the framework for American foreign policy for four decades. In the process, this article clarifies the nature of the personal and professional dealings of the two men over the period from the end of World War II until Acheson's death in 1971.

The Historical Alternation of Moods in American Foreign Policy

1952 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 239-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank L. Klingberg
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
World War I ◽  
American Foreign Policy ◽  
Free World ◽  
World War ◽  
The West

There seems little doubt that the defense and strengthening of the “free world” in our time depends largely upon American leadership. Confidence that America will continue to play this role in world affairs is weakened by the memory of America's political isolation following World War I, and by certain currents of American opinion noted by observers since World War II.1 Barbara Ward warns the peoples of the West that “we shall certainly fail unless our effort is at once sustained, calm and supremely positive.”

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