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Difficulty: MediumWorld War II: Military Campaigns and Postwar Planning

"The Crimean Conference... ought to spell the end of the system of unilateral action, the exclusive alliances, the spheres of influence, the balances of power, and all the other expedients that have been tried for centuries—and have always failed. We propose to substitute for all these, a universal organization in which all peace-loving nations will finally have a chance to join."
— President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Address to Congress on the Yalta Conference, March 1, 1945

The internationalist vision described in the excerpt represented the most direct rejection of which of the following traditional United States foreign policy positions?

  1. A
    The establishment of defensive military alliances with Latin American nations to deter colonization
  2. A policy of avoiding permanent political alliances and entanglement in European affairsAnswer
  3. C
    A policy of complete economic isolationism and total withdrawal from foreign markets
  4. D
    The immediate implementation of containment strategies to limit Soviet territorial expansion

Answer

A policy of avoiding permanent political alliances and entanglement in European affairs
The correct option is correct because President Roosevelt's address outlines a move toward collective security and international cooperation via a universal organization (the United Nations). This directly rejected the long-standing United States foreign policy tradition of avoiding permanent political alliances and entanglements in European conflicts, which had guided the nation since George Washington's Farewell Address and was reinforced by neutrality legislation in the 1930s.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze President Roosevelt's speech on the Yalta Conference to identify the core argument.
Roosevelt proposes a new international system based on a 'universal organization' (the United Nations) to replace unilateral action, spheres of influence, and exclusive alliances.
Understanding the message of the stimulus is necessary before comparing it to historical context.
2
Identify the historical U.S. foreign policy tradition that this internationalist approach challenges.
Historically, the United States avoided permanent political alliances and entanglements in European affairs, a tradition established by George Washington and reinforced during the interwar era.
This links the wartime shift in diplomacy to the broader historical developments of Period 7 and earlier eras.
3
Evaluate the choices to find the tradition most directly rejected by FDR's internationalist plan.
The option advocating the avoidance of permanent political alliances and entanglements represents the correct choice.
FDR's collective security model directly replaced the unilateral/non-interventionist traditions of the past.

Key Concept

World War II: Military Campaigns and Postwar Planning
Estimated Time:1m 30s
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World War II: Military Campaigns and Postwar Planning

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