History of U.S. foreign policy, 1913–1933
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The history of U.S. foreign policy from 1913–1933 covers the foreign policy of the United States during World War I and much of the Interwar period. The administrations of Presidents Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover successively handled U.S. foreign policy during this period.
Wilson initially sought to remain neutral in World War I, but in 1917 he led the United States into the war on the side of the Allied Powers of Britain, France, and other countries. In 1918, Germany sued for peace, and Wilson was one of the key Allied leaders at the post-war Paris Peace Conference. He advocated for the option of his "Fourteen Points", which called for the establishment of "an organized common peace" that would help prevent future conflicts. Other Allied leaders pushed back against some of Wilson's goals, but the Allied leaders agreed to join the newly-formed League of Nations. In the United States, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge led a successful effort to prevent ratification of the Treaty of Versailles, and the treaty remained unratified when Wilson left office.
Campaigning against Wilson's policies, Harding won election in 1920 and took office in 1921. Harding repudiated the Treaty of Versailles, and the United States never joined the League. Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes led the negotiations that resulted in the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty, under which the major naval powers agreed to avoid a naval arms race. Efforts for disarmament would continue after 1922, leading to the signing of the 1930 London Naval Treaty. European war debts and reparations also emerged as a major issue in the 1920s; the U.S. consistently refused to forgive the debts, but Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover all reached agreements to lower the burden of debts on various European countries. Coolidge's main foreign policy initiative was the Kellogg–Briand Pact, under which the signatories agreed to renounce war as an "instrument of national policy". The Great Depression began during Hoover's tenure, leaving the worldwide economy in crisis. In the midst of the depression, Japan invaded Manchuria and Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany.
In Latin America, Wilson emulated his predecessors in sending soldiers to support U.S.-backed governments, but Hoover eventually wound down the "Banana Wars". The U.S. became involved in the Mexican Revolution during Wilson's presidency, and Mexico would remain a foreign policy issue throughout the 1920s. After the October Revolution, Wilson dispatched American soldiers to Russia in as part of a broader Allied intervention. Russia was succeeded by the Soviet Union in 1922, and the United States would refuse to extend diplomatic recognition to the Soviet Union until 1933.