Military Alliance Quotes
He used the “united nations” as a general description as the UN had not been created or named yet, However, as this quotation demonstrates, the President was already thinking about a UN idea, but as a realist, he explained that the great powers had to come to some agreement of interests. Actually China and France, at the time, would go along with whatever the United States and Britain wanted to do and had a great common interest, and there was already a strong association of interests between Britain and America. Russia was to be the problem and a complete common interest was never to be, but there was enough to get the United Nations started.
1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor. For the earliest use of the phrase, see {41309}.
Jefferson had been very much pro French and anti British, but the rise of Napoleon and French presence on the American continent shifted his views, culminating in the Louisiana Purchase. See {605059} for Jefferson’s view on the military significance of New Orleans.
One major problem at the time was that the Soviet Union was supporting and instigating revolutions in many parts of the world. When most nations of the UN wanted to provide peace keeping troops to quell the conflict, the Russians would veto and block the effort, Vandenberg wanted the UN to change the rules regarding the veto. The original right of veto for the major nations was originally included at the insistence of the United States and many Americans did not want to give it up or have any exceptions lest there be more. The Russians at that time also did not want to give up any of their veto powers. Another method that Vandenberg wanted to solve the Russian peacekeeping blockage problem was for America to engage in more collective security pacts so that action could be taken without UN Security Council unanimity by going around the UN.
No military alliances has been a tradition in American politics which broke down and changed in our allied effort in WWI. Harding and the Republicans of his day, wanted to reestablish that principle of American Foreign policy. They succeeded, but WWII and its Cold War aftermath made a major change in U. S. policy on this point, and NATO was not only a major permanent military alliance, but lasted well beyond the fall of the Soviet Union. America and our NATO allies were so pleased with the benefits of a permanent military alliance, that they preserved it by looking hard for missions that it could take on rather than dissolve NATO.
