American Economic Policies
Question1
President Wilson believed that world war one was ‘…the war to end all wars”. This argument was based on the fact that America was opposed to German militarism and that a war against the Germans was a fight for democracy in the world (Antizzo 12). Looking into the future up through the 1950’s, this could never be true as much of the seeds of World War II were planted by the Versailles treaty, which ended World War one. Ultimately, the treaty blamed the war on Germany and Austria-Hungary. This created potential conflicts. Soon, Nazi took control of the government and Hitler managed to consolidate his power. This enabled him to repeatedly violate the Versailles treaty, which laid grounds for a conflict and possible war (Davidson, Lytle and Stoff 125). The Soviet Union was keen on spreading her communist ideas, posing a threat to economic superiority of the United States (Antizzo 12). Also, the United States sought to spread her capitalist ideas at all costs, which laid fertile grounds for future conflicts.
The United States cannot stay out of military actions. She must save her face as the super power. She advances capitalism and a threat to this ideology is countered with all her might, military intervention included (Antizzo 12). For instance, in 1954, the defeat of France left the Vietminh hoping for the establishment of a unified, independent Vietnamese state. However, the powerful Chinese and Soviet allies feared U.S military intervention in Indochina. President D. Eisenhower had indeed considered military intervention so as to avert a Vietminh victory, which would have portrayed the allies as more powerful than the US. The US prevailed to prove her might. Also, in 1915, the United States sent her troops to Haiti to put an end to the prevailing anarchy and to defend the US economic and military interests (Antizzo 10).
Question 2
President hoovers approach to the economy was known as voluntarism, which basically meant self-reliance by government coercion of business (Hanna and Linden 125). In this era, the stock market crashed. In the year 1929-1939, there was a dramatic decline in the world’s economy due to this crash (Hanna and Linden 126). This resulted in the decline of the need for raw materials, while the supply of finished products went down. By 1932, industrial production fell by half. Demand for products declined as the purchasing power diminished. The Great Depression set in and Herbert Hoover was blamed for it (Hanna and Linden 156)………………………………………………………
