Dreams of establishing world peace by promoting democracy and abolishing communism have long been alive and well in the United States. From the Spanish-American War, through the years of the Cold War, to today, the federal government has travelled abroad several times to create treaties and establish agreements to achieve these dreams. While not all U.S. Presidents share in the ideals of how to achieve such lengthy goals, the passion and endurance has remained constant.
Former Secretary of State, William R. Day was sent to Paris by President William McKinley at the end of the Spanish-American War to sign the Treaty of Paris. The Treaty of Paris committed Spain to give up their control of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Philippines, and parts of the West Indies to the United States for twenty million dollars; marking the beginning of the U.S. becoming a global power (Butler, 1902). In 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt gained interest in obtaining entry to Asia via the Panama Canal, focusing foreign policy in the Caribbean, thus came The Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine stating that European powers were to direct any correspondences involving Latin America to the United States (Herring, 2008). Franklin D. Roosevelt took a different approach to aiding Latin America in becoming a democracy, through the Good Neighbor Policy in 1928. The goal of the Good Neighbor policy was to take a non-interference approach to Latin America’s domestic affairs, while still being a good neighbor and would provide military assistance when necessary (Gilderhus, 2006).
At the end of World War I, more than 32 countries met at the Paris Peace Conference; this along with the Washington Naval Conference of 1921-1922 set the groundwork for the Versailles-Washington system of international relations, leading to the creation of the League of Nations (Hobsbawm, 1992). The League of Nations was the first intergovernmental organization whose main function was to establish and maintain world peace. While this was great in theory, the countries involved all had vastly differing constitutions, making it impossible for all of the articles in the League’s charter to not conflict with at least a few of those existing constitutions. As a result, the United States never joined the League of Nations, but it did earn President Woodrow Wilson a Nobel Peace Prize (MacMillan, 2003).
The U.S. did not give up on its dreams of world peace and democracy with the failure of the League of Nations, the first meetings of the General Assembly of the United Nations took place in London in January 1946, with 51 nations in attendance (Department of Public Information, ND). Similarly to the League of Nations, the UN sought to establish world peace, but the UN broadened its horizons by specifically promoting cooperation in solving international economic, social and humanitarian problems. Even with the Franklin D. Roosevelt’s hand in the creation of the UN, the heat of communism versus democracy was gaining strength and the U.S. fought the Soviet Union in the Cold War from 1947-1991. The Cold War did not disband the UN, but gave it a new goal of achieving world peace as conflicts continue to take place around the world. A 2005 RAND Corp study found the efforts of the UN to be successful in two thirds of its endeavors (Wilton, 2007).
Democracy again prevailed and the