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Presidents And Their Doctrines

Presidential doctrines refer to a set of foreign policies that were formed by the presidents of USA to protect the interests of their citizens and states. They contain attitudes and key goals made by the presidents alone or with the help of the people in their administration. These foreign policy doctrines are not considered the law. Moreover, some of them have been announced publicly like Harry Truman’s doctrines, whereas some of the doctrines have been highlighted by the journalists or historians by ploughing through the presidents’ statements and speeches.

Various Doctrines Over Time

  1. Monroe (1823) and Polk (1845) doctrines was initially introduced to advise the European power to keep out of the affairs of US. Monroe’s doctrine was made in response to European nations’ interests in trades of the North and South America. The Polk doctrine reiterated the Monroe doctrine by warning the Europeans that their intrusion would be met with aggression.
  2. Furthermore in 1904, in response to the fear that Europeans interference would put a dent in their financial stability and weaken their domination, Roosevelt’s Corollary was created to declare that any country found guilty of ‘chronic wrongdoing or impotence’ on America or anywhere else would be dealt by the US.
  3. In 1947 after the World War II, Truman introduced his doctrine by responding to a crisis at the time when Greece and Turkey were threatened by communism. He stated that US must have a policy to help out the people resisting subjugation by armed and outside forces.
  4. On the other hand, when Nixon became president in 1969, US had been in war with Vietnam against communism for four years. The president responded by ending the war stating that US would gradually pull out their resources and aids so that the Vietnamese people would fend for their survival by themselves.
  5. Similarly, the Carter (1980) doctrine was the response to the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan by stating that US would protect the Persian Gulf states.
  6. When Soviet Union’s grab for power and spread of communism arose, Reagan doctrine developed a strategy to protect US interest by supporting insurgents that were against communism, controlling international policies to prevent soviet influence and by spreading propagandas against communism.
  7. Lastly, Bush doctrine in 2001 was declared which stated that US would react against any country that harbored terrorism.

Thus, these presidents introduced their own foreign policy in response to the crisis that threatened their interests in the world in their times.

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