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IV. The Rôle of Congress and Public Opinion in Formulating Foreign Policy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

Kenneth Colegrove
Kenneth Colegrove
Affiliation:
Northwestern University
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Extract

There is a popular expectation in the United States that the peace settlement of the major United Nations will be as effectively and loyally executed by the United States as by Great Britain and Soviet Russia. This over-confidence of the American people in the prowess of their President is partly due to: (1) the successful conduct of the war, (2) the popular credence placed in the Chief Executive as national leader in time of war, (3) the immense personal prestige of President Roosevelt and his Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, and (4) the belief that, in case the November election should bring the Republican party into control of the White House, Governor Dewey would continue with vigor the Rooseveltian policy of full participation and leadership on the part of the United States.

A warning that the American Senate might shatter this peace settlement was sounded by Senators Arthur H. Vandenberg and Robert A. Taft and other somewhat isolation-minded Republicans in September, 1943, in the Mackinac Declaration. The “constitutionalism” proposed by this declaration meant nothing else than that the peace settlement must be in the form of a treaty which would require the consent of two-thirds of the members of the American Senate. Senators Vandenberg and Taft controlled the resolutions committee of the Republican national convention in July, 1944, with the result that the Republican platform concluded its proposal regarding the peace settlement with the following pronouncement: “Pursuant to the Constitution of the United States, any treaty or agreement to attain such [international] aims made on behalf of the United States with any other nation or association of nations, shall be made only by and with the advice and consent of the Senate of the United States provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur.”

Type
Emerging Problems in the Conduct of American Foreign Relations
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 38 , Issue 5 , October 1944 , pp. 956 - 969
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1944

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References

1 For the text of the Mackinac Declaration, see Cong. Rec., Sept. 14, 1943, pp. 3499–3500.

2 Compare J. R. Hayden, The Senate and Treaties, 1789–1817, Chaps. I, II.

3 Cong. Globe, Vol. 58 (Feb. 27, 1845), p. 362. Cf. Smith, Justin H., The Annexation of Texas (1911)Google Scholar, Chap. XIV.

4 International Executive Agreements; Democratic Procedure under the Constitution of the United States (1941).

5 The Constitution and World Organization (1944).

6 See statement of Senator Hitchcock in Butler, Nicholas Murray, Across the Busy Years (1940), Vol. II, p. 201.Google Scholar

7 Cong. Rec., Vol. 58 (Nov. 19, 1919), Pt. 9, pp. 8786 and 8803. For an analysis of this vote, see Holt, W. Stull, Treaties Defeated by the Senate (1933), pp. 295–298.Google Scholar

8 Cong. Rec., Vol. 60 (Mar. 19, 1920), Pt. 5, pp. 4598–4599.

9 Cong. Rec., Vol. 78 (June 13 and 16, 1934), Pt. 10, p. 11,343, and Pt. 11, p. 12,241. See also Hudson, Manley O., “The Membership of the United States in International Labor Organization.” Amer. Jour. of Internat. Law (Oct., 1934), Vol. 26 pp. 669–674.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

10 An account of this conference reached the press. See New York Times, June 10, 1943, p. 28.

11 Cong. Rec., Vol. 89 (July 6, 1943), Pt. 5, p. 7237.

12 See the account by SenatorVandenberg, in the New York Times, Aug. 18, 1943, p. 1.Google Scholar

13 For further details, see the author's The American Senate and World Peace (1944), Chap. II.

14 See New York Times, Aug. 25, 1943, p. 1.

15 Department of State Bulletin, Vol. 9 (Nov. 13, 1943), No. 229, pp. 317–319. The text of the agreement had been published in the Bulletin of Sept. 25, 1943, No. 222, pp. 211–225.

16 First Session of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, Atlantic City, New Jersey, November 10–December 1, 1943 (Washington, 1944), pp. 115, 205–206.

17 House of Representatives, Report No. 994, 78th Cong., 1st Sess. Without the specific authorization, H. J. Res. 192 had been introduced in the House in November, 1943. See Cong. Rec., Vol. 89 (Nov. 15, 1943), Pt. 7, p. 9557.

18 Cong. Rec., Vol. 90 (Feb. 17, 1944), pp. 1837–1840.

19 Senate Executive Doc. F, 78th Cong., 2d sess. (Aug. 24, 1944).

20 See Chicago Sun, Aug. 10, 1944, and New York Times, July 12, 1944, p. 1.

21 Compare The State Department Speaks (Department of State Publication, No. 2056, Washington, 1944), pp. 56–58.

22 Compare a statement by SecretaryHull, on “Need for Alert Public Opinion,” in Department of State Bulletin, Vol. 10 (July 16, 1944), No. 264, p. 60.Google Scholar

23 See, in particular, Hearings before the Committee on Ways and Means, House of Representatives, Seventy-eighth Congress, First Session on H. J. Res. 111, Extension of Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act (Washington, 1943), and also Hearings before the Committee on Finance, United States Senate, Seventy-eighth Congress, First Session, on H. J. Res. 111, Extension of Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act (Washington, 1943).

24 The order is published in full in the Department of State Bulletin, Vol. 10 (Jan. 15, 1944), pp. 45–65. For a chart of the Department as reorganized, see ibid., pp. 66–67; and cf. Laves, Walter H. C. and Wilcox, Francis O., “The Reorganization of the Department of State,” in this Review, Vol. 38, pp. 289–301 (Apr., 1944).Google Scholar

25 Now, Division of Cultural Coöperation.

26 The Division of Public Liaison, not included in Departmental Order 1218, was established by Departmental Order 1229 of February 22, 1944.

27 See the writer's “Expansion of the Publications of the Department of State,” in this Review, Vol, 22, pp. 69–77 (Feb., 1929).

28 See The Cultural-Coöperation Program, 1938–1943, by Hanson, Haldore (Department of State Publication, No. 2137, Washington, 1944).Google Scholar See also Peck, Willys R., “State Department Aid to Cultural Exchange with China,” in Department of State Bulletin, Vol. XI (July 9, 1944), No. 263, pp. 36–43Google Scholar; and G. Howland Shaw, “Cultural-Coöperation Program of the Department of State,” in ibid., Vol. X (May 13, 1944), No. 255, pp. 429–434.

29 For the text of Departmental Order 1229 of February 22, 1944, see Department of State Bulletin (Feb. 26, 1944), Vol. 10, pp. 209–211.

30 See the address by SecretaryHull, entitled “Foreign Policy of the United States,” Department of State Bulletin, Vol. 10, No. 251, pp. 335–342 (Apr. 15, 1944).Google Scholar See also the statement of President Roosevelt concerning the non-partisan character of the groups which developed the American plan, ibid., Vol. 10, No. 260, pp. 552–553 (June 17, 1944).

31 See statement in New York Times, Aug. 18, 1944, p. 1.

32 Ibid., Oct. 14, 1943, p. 1.

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