Isolationism Essay

Isolationism is “a policy of abstaining from economic and political relations with other countries” (Smith). An isolationist is “a politician who thinks the Republic ought to pursue a policy of political isolation” (McDougall 40). After its founding on July 4, 1776, the United States of America practiced this policy in order to keep itself out of foreign affairs. But it was not called this until the late Save for its trading with other countries, the United States followed the ideas that isolationism promoted. However, it was clear that in the 1900s that the U.S. was starting to turn away from the policy of isolationism. The presidents could no longer be isolationists according to the true definition. They became involved World War I after

But after the Second World War, the United States enacted a long line of foreign policies that shunned isolationism. This was evident as the U.S. joined the Southern Vietnamese Army of the Republic of Viet Nam (ARVN) against the communist People’s Army of Vietnam of North Korea (PAVN). When Republican President Richard Nixon was finally able to pull the last of the American soldiers out of Vietnam, it was hoped that the U.S. would try to stay out of conflict, and revert back to a more isolationist approach. Notwithstanding, the Vietnam War, for the most part, did not signal the return to a foreign policy of isolationism; rather, save for majority of the actions in the Far East, the policies and actions of the presidents after participation in the Vietnam War shows that the United States did not shy away from involving itself in the Middle East and the Soviet

This was one of the many protests that were led by the civilians of the P.R.C. in the latter half of the 1980s that protested the communistic government that was in place which sought to have a democratic government established. However, it took a turn for the worse when the Chinese military started firing on the pro-democracy protesters on June 4, 1989 and killed hundreds of them (Richelson and Evans). This massacre caused the U.S. President George Herbert Walker Bush to announce sanctions on China that prevented the U.S. and China from commercially selling weapons to each other (Richelson and Evans). This differed from the past actions of former presidents in that they did not send troops over to defend the people of China like they did in sending troops to South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. A final event that showed that the U.S. did return to an isolationist foreign policy with regard to the Far East was Vietnamization. Vietnamization was the plan that Nixon came up with soon after he took office that intended for the South Vietnamese to fight without the aid of the American troops that were over there (Simkin). It was put in place so that the American troops that had been sent over would come back while leaving the AVRN in a condition in which they could sufficiently defend themselves against the PAVN. By 1972, the total number of United States