The American Century and Beyond The Oxford History of the United States David M. Kennedy, General Editor Robert Middlekauff THE GLORIOUS CAUSE The American Revolution, 1763–1789 Gordon S. wood EMPIRE OF LIBERTY A History of the Early Republic, 1789–1815 Daniel walker Howe wHAT HATH GOD wROUGHT The Transformation of America, 1815–1848 James M. McPherson BATTLE CRY OF FREEDOM The Civil War Era David M. Kennedy FREEDOM FROM FEAR The American People in Depression and War, 1929–1945 James T. Patterson GRAND EXPECTATIONS The United States, 1945–1974 James T. Patterson RESTLESS GIANT The United States from Watergate to Bush v. Gore George C. Herring FROM COLONY TO SUPERPOwER U.S. Foreign Relations since 1776 The AmericAn cenTury And Beyond U.S. Foreign Relations, 1893–2015 GEORGE C. HERRING 1 1 Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America. © Oxford University Press 2008 First published as an Oxford University Press paperback in 2011 Two-volume second edition published in 2017 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. Names: Herring, George C., 1936- author. Title: From colony to superpower / George C. Herring. Description: Second edition. | New York : Oxford University Press, 2017. | Revision of paperback edition published in 2011. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2016025664| ISBN 9780190212469 (vol. 1 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780190212476 (vol. 2 : pbk.) Subjects: LCSH: United States—Foreign relations. Classification: LCC E183.7 .H44 2017 | DDC 327.73—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016025664 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America Acknowledgments My thanks, once again, to Susan Ferber of Oxford University Press for guiding the parent volume, From Colony to Superpower, to completion. Susan also developed the idea for this split edition and got the project under way. Tim Bent took it over last year, offered insightful comments on the new material, and helped get these volumes ready for publication. Alyssa O’Connell managed with admirable efficiency the acquisition of permissions for the images and took care of numerous other tasks that go with the production of a book. I enjoyed working with her, and greatly appreciate her help. Thomas Finnegan skillfully copyedited the new ma- terial, and Amy whitmer patiently and with good humor guided this Luddite through the process of electronic editing. Steve wrinn, former director of the University Press of Kentucky, read the last chapter of The American Century—and Beyond with his usual keen editorial eye and of- fered numerous suggestions on style and substance. Alan Lowe, at the time director of the George w. Bush Library, and his colleague Eric McGrory, acquired for me with remarkable dispatch one of my favorite photographs. As General Editor of the Oxford History of the United States series, David M. Kennedy rescued me several times during the production of From Colony to Superpower and these two volumes. He helped establish the framework for this split edition and pushed me on several very impor- tant features until I got them right. David has no peer as an editor. My wife, Dottie Leathers, has continued to support my research and writing long after she might have asked whether I couldn’t find something else to do. These volumes, like From Colony to Superpower, are dedicated to her with my love. contents Preface, ix 1. The war of 1898, the New Empire, and the Dawn of the American Century, 1893–1901, 1 2. “Bursting with Good Intentions”: The United States in world Affairs, 1901–1913, 38 3. “A New Age”: wilson, the Great war, and the Quest for a New world Order, 1913–1921, 79 4. Involvement without Commitment, 1921–1931, 137 5. The Great Transformation: Depression, Isolationism, and war, 1931–1941, 185 6. “Five Continents and Seven Seas”: world war II and the Rise of American Globalism, 1941–1945, 239 7. “A Novel Burden Far from Our Shores”: Truman, the Cold war, and the Revolution in U.S. Foreign Policy, 1945–1953, 295 8. Coexistence and Crises, 1953–1961, 352 9. Gulliver’s Troubles: Kennedy, Johnson, and the Limits of Power, 1961–1968, 403 10. Nixon, Kissinger, and the End of the Postwar Era, 1969–1974, 461 11. Foreign Policy in an Age of Dissonance, 1974–1981, 511 12. “A Unique and Extraordinary Moment”: Gorbachev, Reagan, Bush, and the End of the Cold war, 1981–1991, 562 13. “The Strength of a Giant”: America as Hyperpower, 1992–2007, 618 14. 9/11 and the Post-American world, 2001–2014, 640 Bibliographical Essay, 695 Index, 719 Preface In the February 17, 1941, issue of Life magazine, publisher Henry Luce passionately appealed to his readers to create the “first great American Century.” with the world at war, he insisted, the United States must take up “an internationalism of the people, by the people, and for the people.” It must become “the Good Samaritan of the entire world” by fulfilling its “manifest duty” to feed the “hungry and destitute” and the “powerhouse” from which its ideals would “spread across the world.” The United States itself might not endure, the journalist seemed ominously to warn, unless its ideals of freedom, equality of opportunity, and free enterprise took root everywhere.1 Luce’s words drew upon the Founders’ vision of a new world order based on American principles. They echoed woodrow wilson’s challenge to Americans to assume the burdens of world leadership. In the years that followed, the United States heeded Luce’s call. Although U.S. leaders acted more often as defenders of their nation’s interests than Good Samaritans and other peoples only selectively if at all embraced American ways, the term “American Century” stuck and came to be applied to the entire twentieth century. This volume recounts the rise of the United States as a global power from the turbulent 1890s, the dawn of the American Century, to a com- manding position in world politics and economics at the turn of the twenty-first century. The story begins in an age of rampant nationalism, chauvinism, and imperialism when America burst on the world scene as an economic giant, pummeled Spain in a short war, and acquired an overseas empire. It covers the initiatives taken by Theodore Roosevelt and 1. Henry R, Luce, “The American Century,” reprinted in Diplomatic History 23 (Spring 1999), 159–171.