Cold War And American International Balance Of Payments Adjusting Policy (1945-1969)

Imbalance of international balance of payments during post WWII period was one of the main problems the government of U.S. confronted. International balance of payments describes the whole picture of a country's receipts from abroad and payments to the outside world. Under the Cold War background, America offered lots of economic, military and techological assistances to alliances and the under-developed countries in order to defeat the Soviet Union, which led to the inflation of overseas expenditures of the U.S. government and the balance of payments turned unfavorable to America. Gold reserve outflowed rapidly. The Bretton Woods System which was initiated by the U.S. made America the international currency country, however, it made America lost the traditional feasibility of imbalance adjustment. Therefore, America tried to make alliances assume more adjustment burden. Althouth there were unanimous interests between America and alliances, there were also diversity among alliances. So balance of payments problems were"the heel of Archilles"and it was also the beverage West Germany and Franch used to balance American Cold War strategy. American balance of payments adjusting policy had great influences on its worldwide strategy and its relationship with alliances.This dissertation employed a great deal of rare declassified documents by American government under the FOIA (Freedom of Information Act), and used some second-hand books for reference. The main purpose of this dissertation is to trace the changing of American international balance of payments adjusting policy from the Truman administration to the Johnson administration, to reveal what the Cold War had put on America's policy-making, and as a result of interaction, to make know how American international balance of payments policy changed the process of the Cold War.Guided by theories of related subjects such as the international relations theory, the international finance theory, and the political psychology theory, and through careful researching the declassified documents, this dissertation tried to illustrate three viewpoints: firstly, under the background of the Cold War, American balance of payments adjustment policy became part of Cold War prestige race, military race and political race from the very beginning. As a result of interaction, the Cold War itself changed in some degree. Secondly, American international balance of payments adjusting policy was derived from a premise that American could count on its troop stationed in Western Europe as a chip and its financil position as deterrence. But that was the last thing America could do under Cold War. Thirdly, American balance of payments problem can't be solved unless it abandons Cold War thinking.