President Franklin Roosevelt’s Foreign Policies

Foreign policies, although sometimes similar, varies from administration to administration. The policy makers, who are normally the closest aids or sometimes-even confidants, tend to have tremendous influences on these guiding principles. The foreign policies of America have help shaped the world as it is today, whether by providing aids to countries that have no structural governments or by defending American interest abroad. An example of these policies is president Franklin Roosevelt’s quarantine speech, given on 5th October 1937. Adolf Hitler and the fascist Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini are irrefutably threatening the world’s peace. In an effort to protect the peace, President Roosevelt’s quarantine speech seems to be a devised policy that would counter such a threat. A major setback however is that the neutrality acts has been passed by congress, curtailing America’s capability of backing and or supporting nations with whom we empathize. Sources in the White House indicate that the president may find other ways of assisting friendly countries. In his speech, the president has articulated concerns about the agonies guiltless people face. Women and children are mostly susceptible to these bombings. Without the declaration of war, they are the primary casualties of war. Although collateral damage is inevitable, the suggestion by the president is that prevention can be achieved by mainly placing political and economic pressures on the aggressors. He said, â€Å"The one country that wants to be a power monger jeopardizes the peace of the other nations. However, the country, which respects the freedom of other nations, which exercises patience with consideration of the other countries, earns the longstanding mutual respect and the approval of others. † He concluded by stating that just as when a pandemic breaks out, the population approves the quarantine of the patients; the quarantine of discrimination and ruthlessness were going to be headstrong, it is necessary for the United States to stay away from war. In his words, the president alleged, â€Å"America hates war, American hopes for peace. Therefore America actively engages in the search for peace. † This speech coupled with the aggressiveness of Germany and her allies has aroused a surprisingly mixed reaction within the country, especially amongst the isolationists. Then again, it appears that the president does not have any particular programs or plans in mind to combat the rising issue at hand. In an effort to pressure the United States and reiterate the Open Door policy in China, a delegation was sent to a meeting with the 1922 signatories of the Nine-Power Treaty in Brussels. Meanwhile, the Japanese just seized the Chinese city of Shanghai and continue to penetrate deep into the country at the cost of 100,000 lives. As it stands, it is very likely that America will be going to war due to the Japanese bombings of the U. S. gunboat Panay on the Yangtze River in China while sailors were helping the evacuation of Americans from the embassy in Nanking. Again, America has escaped the tides of war as the Japanese conformed to American demands of apology and reparations. In the meantime, the imminence of war in Europe has driven the Roosevelt administration into seeking assistance for the British and French and still isolationists refute the idea of war. An example is William Borah, Senator of Idaho, who obstinately insists that his sources are more reliable than that of State Department, and according to them, war is unlikely. Despite all the efforts, the outbreak of war in Europe and the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor has led the United States to war with the belligerents.