Major Trends in American Foreign Policy

Following World War II, the United States devised a containment policy to restrain the Soviet Union's expansionist impulses. The policy, according to Shi and George (933), was to apply fiscal, political, and military pressure. The foregoing are among the main patterns. The first trend was the signing of an armistice. A cease-fire deal was signed in 1953, forming a boundary between North and South Korea (Shi and George 991). Similarly, the confusion felt by the Soviet Union and China's growing military prompted an armistice. The second trend was the dullest and massive retaliation. John Dulles argued that it was immoral to use containment policy and proposed liberation. The massive retaliation emphasized on the use of the nuclear warfare threat to prevent the aggression of the Communist (Shi and George 992).
The third trend was the CIA and foreign intervention. The Central Intelligence Agency was established in 1947 (Shi and George 991). Its function is to gather intelligence for the government. Eisenhower and Dulles used the CIA to influence politics of the world. For instance, when the prime minister of Iran, Mohammed Mossadegh cut the relationship with Great Britain, the CIA was used to remove him from power. The fourth trend was the reelection and foreign crisis. Republicans renominated Eisenhower in 1956 and supported his Moderate Republicanism (Shi and George 996). The policy meant that there would be reduced intervention by the government and balanced budgets. Similarly, the Moderate Republicanism advocated for internationalist rather than having an isolationist foreign policy. Fifth, the Suez war entailed the control of the Suez Canal by Nasser. The NATO alliance was almost destroyed due to the attack on Egypt by Israel, Britain, and France (Shi and George 997). The cease-fire in Suez crisis meant that the British and French had to withdraw from the Suez Canal.
Work Cited
Shi, David E., and George Brown T. America: the essential learning edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2015. Print.