America's Foreign Policies

Trevor Underhill
                            America’s Foreign Policies Paper
The United States had to create polices to define its relationships with these new territories; Guam, Spanish territories of the Philippines, and Puerto Rico. There are three different Foreign Policies that I am going to talk about, they’re; Roosevelt’s Big Stick Diplomacy, Taft’s Dollar Diplomacy, and Wilson’s Moral Diplomacy. I believe Theodore Roosevelt’s Big Stick Diplomacy was the best foreign policy because it was similar to the Monroe Doctrine.
Theodore Roosevelt believed that Americans were the superior people and bound for control in economic and political affairs. He believed that if the U.S. made a show of force to the rest of the world, other nations might be more hesitant to challenge the American military. In order for this to happen; Americans had to aim for greatness, refine mental fitness and build a powerful military force that’s ready to fight. He wanted to dominate the Western Hemisphere, while the European countries were to keep their hands off the Western Hemisphere due to the Monroe Doctrine and he believed that the United States, being the Big Brother of Latin America, could involve itself in Latin American country affairs. In an effort to aid the Dominican Republic, America declared itself the “policeman” of the Western Hemisphere due to the Big Stick Diplomacy.   William Howard Taft had experience in dealing with imperialist rivals such as Japan as Roosevelt's secretary of war, but he lacked Roosevelt's balance of power, politics, and capacity for leadership in foreign affairs. Taft believed that if the United States were to pay off the Western Hemisphere depts they owe to European Countries then they wouldn’t have a reason to come to the Western Hemisphere. Also, countries receiving American aid would give certain rights to the United States in exchange for the financial assistance. So pretty much Taft’s Dollar Diplomacy means that the United States...