The Isolationsis In The U.S. Senate And American Foreign Policy Making In1930s

After the First World War, American scholars had published many books to disclose the darkness of this war, which made Americans believe that they were deceived into the war and made them decide not to involve in international disputes any more; the outbreak of the Great Depression strengthened the idea of "ignoring things around, and focusing on your own development" deriving from "the thought of model". These two factors resulted in the prevailing of the strong trend of isolationism and led to the formation and consolidation of the "senate isolationists" who dominated the American foreign policy making in the1930s. Under isolationists’ positive intervention and some pacifist societies’ support, the United States worked out a series of Neutrality Laws. The laws enforced "arms embargo" to both belligerents, which made the president can’t take actions only to the aggressors. The laws also made restrictions to the "wartime trade" and worked out the trading principle of "cash and carry", which ensured the business interests on the basis of the United States’ security. After the outbreak of the Second World War in1939, the blind pursuit of neutrality no longer conformed to the interests of the United States, and the arms embargo was repealed, so the isolationists gradually declined. When we make criticism to isolationist’s ignorance to international morality, their deny the threat to American security from fascist nations, and their blind pursuit of neutrality, we should notice that their propositions reflect the common request of "focusing on the domestic reform and getting out of the Great Depression" in American society, and also find that their propositions is out of their concern of president’s centralizing power and damaging the constitutional system after being involved in war.