The Conversion of Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg: From Isolation to International Engagement

320 Pages·2015·4.075 MB·English

by  Lawrence S. Kaplan

The Conversion of
Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg

The Conversion of
Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg
From Isolation to
International Engagement
Lawrence S. Kaplan
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Copyright © 2015 by The University Press of Kentucky
Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth,
serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky,
Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown
College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead
State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University,
Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville,
and Western Kentucky University.
All rights reserved.
Editorial and Sales Offices: The University Press of Kentucky
663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kaplan, Lawrence S.
The conversion of Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg : from isolation to
international engagement / Lawrence S. Kaplan.
pages cm. — (Studies in conflict, diplomacy and peace)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8131-6055-9 (hardcover : alk. paper) —
ISBN 978-0-8131-6060-3 (pdf) — ISBN 978-0-8131-6061-0 (epub)
1. Vandenburg, Arthur H. (Arthur Hendrick), 1884–1951. 2. United States.
Congress. Senate—Biography. 3. Internationalists—United States—Biography.
4. United States—Foreign relations—1945–1953. 5. United States—Foreign
relations—1933–1945. 6. Isolationism—United States—History—20th century.
7. Republican Party (U.S. : 1854– )—Biography. 8. Legislators—United
States—Biography. I. Title.
E748.V18K37 2015
328.73'092—dc23
[B] 2014047972
This book is printed on acid-free paper meeting
the requirements of the American National Standard
for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials.
Manufactured in the United States of America.
Member of the Association of
American University Presses
In memory of Wayne S. Cole, 1922–2013,
historian of isolationism

Contents
Preface ix
List of Abbreviations xiii
1. Hamilton’s Impact, 1906–1928 1
2. The Republican Moderate, 1928–1936 21
3. Toward Insulation, 1934–1937 41
4. Isolationism Challenged, 1938–1941 61
5. The Impact of World War, 1941–1945 87
6. The Conversion Experience, 1945 115
7. The Senator as Diplomat, 1945–1946 143
8. The Senator as Statesman, 1947–1948 169
9. Charter and Treaty, 1948–1949 203
10. In Retrospect, 1950–1951 235
Appendix 1. Excerpts from “The Need for Honest Candor” 243
Appendix 2. The Vandenberg Resolution 247
Notes 249
Bibliography 275
Index 281
Photographs follow page 142

Preface
The inspiration for this book goes back to 1951, when, as a fledgling his-
torian with the Historian’s Office, Office of the Secretary of Defense, I was
tasked with conducting a study of the impact of the new North Atlantic
Treaty Organization on the Defense Department’s Military Assistance
Program. Having just completed a doctoral dissertation on the origins
of isolationism in Jeffersonian America, I was—and still am—intrigued
with the recognition that NATO represented the termination of the U.S.
tradition of nonentanglement with the Old World. It was symbolized by
the absence of an entangling alliance with any nation in Western Europe
since the Convention of Mortefontaine in 1800. Almost 150 years had to
pass before the United States was prepared to challenge that tradition.
It did not take quite that long before I was able to publish a book-
length monograph on NATO’s origins. Over the past thirty-five years I
have written a few books on NATO’s formation as archives opened and
new insights became possible. In each of my studies, Arthur Vandenberg
has occupied a place of importance but never quite the central role in
America’s conversion to a new status in the world. Such influential figures
as George Kennan, Dean Acheson, and John Foster Dulles have occupied
that position.
Vandenberg, as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Commit-
tee in 1947 and 1948 and the ranking Republican on that committee in
1949, was arguably the key factor in moving the nation from its isolation-
ist past to an internationalist future. The Truman Doctrine, the Marshall
Plan, the North Atlantic Treaty, and the Military Assistance Program owe
their passage to the passion of this legislator. While disclaiming the posi-
tion of co–secretary of state, Vandenberg was as important as any mem-
ber of the Truman administration in convincing his party, the Senate,
and the nation at large to share his vision of the nation’s future. Scholars
have paid attention to his role, and articles have appeared in the sixty-five
ix
x Preface
years since his death. But no comprehensive study has been undertaken.
This study attempts to flesh out his conversion from isolationism to in-
ternationalism, with appreciation for the limits as well as the extent of his
achievements.
The voluminous correspondence in the Vandenberg Papers at the
Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan offers a picture
of a public man, well aware of his importance to community, party, and
nation. He was not an introspective person. His letters and diaries, his
speeches in the Senate, and his queries in Foreign Relations Commit-
tee hearings make up the essence of the public man. Behind the rotund
phrases and glib tongue is a political figure who fully reveals himself.
There seem to be no inner thoughts that were not brought to the surface.
This study follows the odyssey of a major political figure from arch-
isolationism in the 1930s to ardent internationalism after World War II.
He was a major factor in bringing the Republican Party into a bipartisan
relationship with the Truman administration At the same time it con-
centrates on the devotion Vandenberg gave to the United Nations as the
template for U.S. foreign policy after 1945. His insistence on the authority
of the UN Charter in legitimizing the Atlantic Alliance accounted for the
charter’s preeminence in the articles of the North Atlantic Treaty. In fact,
his Vandenberg Resolution in June 1948 set in motion the negotiations
for the treaty. While Vandenberg objected to its military component, and
particularly to the implicit powers that military assistance would give to
the presidency, he eventually accepted the need for a military assistance
program. Did his fear of Soviet intimidation of the West in 1949 over-
come the priority he had claimed for the UN Charter? Or was there a
nationalist bias that pushed the UN aside and called into question his
conversion to internationalism? Such are the issues that will be discussed
in the forthcoming chapters.
Two generations have passed since I became acquainted with this subject,
and I cannot do justice to the many institutions and individuals who have
assisted me along the way.
I begin with the Office of the Historian, and its leaders, Rudolph A.
Winnacker, who sponsored my studies from 1951 to 1954, and Alfred
Goldberg, his successor in the 1970s as head of the office, who was in-