U.S. Foreign Policy and Religion During the Cold War and the War on Terror: A Study of How Harry S. Truman and George W. Bush Administrations Procured Public Support for Warfare

165 Pages·2012·7.54 MB·English

by  Janicke Stramer

U.S.
FOREIGN POLICY AND RELIGION
DURING THE COLD WAR
AND THE WAR ON TERROR
u.s.
FOREIGN POLICY AND I{ELIGION
DURING THE COLD WAR
AND THE WAR ON TERROR
A Study Of How HaiTY S. Truman
and George W. Bush Administrations
Procured Public Support For Warfare
Janicke Stramer
\Vith a Foreword by
Matthias M. Maass
The Edwin Mellen Press
Lewistol1GQueenston" Lampeter
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Stramer, Janicke
U.S. foreign policy and religion during the Cold War and the War
on Terrorism: a study of how Harry S. Truman and George W. Bush
administrations procured public support for warfare I Janicke
Stramer; [with a foreword by Matthias M. Maass].
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-7734-1607-9 (hardcover)
ISBN-lO: 0-7734-1607-2 (hardcover)
1. United States--Foreign relations--l945-1989. 2. United States-
Foreign relations--2001-2009. 3. Religion and international relations
-United States--History. 4. Cold War--Religious aspects. 5. War on
Terrorism, 2001-2009--Religious aspects. 6. Truman, Harry S., 1884-
1972.7. Bush, George W. (George Walker), 1946- I. Title.
E744.S932011
327.73009'05--dc23
2011024974
hors serie.
A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British
Library.
Copyright © 2012 Janicke Stramer
All rights reserved. For information contact
The Edwin Mellen Press The Edwin Mellen Press
Box 45 Box 67
Lewiston, New York Queenston, Ontario
USA 14092-0450 CANADA LOS lLO
The Edwin Mellen Press, Ltd.
Lampeter, Ceredigion, Wales
UNITED KINGDOM SA48 8LT
Printed in the United States of America
To my Mother, thank you for all your love and support throughout
the years. Without you none of this would be possible.

Foreword by :tviatthias M. Maass ................................................................. .i
.A.ckno\vledgements ........................................................................................ iv
Chapter One ....................................................................................................... 7
Introduction ....................................................................................................... 7
1.1 Introducti on ....................................................................................................... 7
1.2 Research Design and Methodology ....................................................... 1.2
1.3 Theoretical background. ............................................................................. 21
1.4 Literature on Tnmlan and the Cold War .............................................. 31
1.5 Literature on the Bush and "War on Terror" ...................................... 37
1.6 Organization of Chapters ........................................................................... 43
Chapter Two ................................................................................................. " 45
Case Study J: ........................................... ". .................................................... 45
The Truman Presidency: 1945 - 1953 ................................................... 45
2.1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 45
2.2 Religious uprising during the early Cold War .................................... 47
2.3. Tnunan' s religious rhetoric ..................................................................... 52
2.4 Uniting the Religious Communities ...................................................... 62
2.5 Contain..ment and the NSC-68 .................................................................. 68
2.6 Conclusion ................................... " ................................................................. 76
Chapter Three ................................................................................................. 79
Case Study II: ................................................................................................. 79
The Bush Presidency 2001 - 2005 .......................................................... 79
3.1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 79
3.2 Public Support for Bush ............................................................................. 84
3.3 The missing link between Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden
................................................................................................................................... 87
3.4 Bush's Religious Rhetoric ........................................................................ 98
3.5 Bush' s Faith Alliance ............................................................................... 111
3.6 Conclusion .................................................................................................... 120
Chapter Four ................................................................................................. 123
Conclusion .................................................. ,. . ". ............................................ 123
List of Appendices .......... ,. ......... ,. .............. ,. .............................................. 129
Appendix A -A chart of the frequency of religious rhetoric in
Truman's speeches: .......................................................................................... 129
Appendix B -A chart of the frequency ofreligious rhetoric in Bush's
speeches: ............................................................................................................... 131
Appendix C. -Documents on the Discussion ofNSC-68 in early 1950
................................................................................................................................. 133
Bibliography ................. ,. .............................................................................. 137
Index ................................................................................. ". ........................... 151
In 1958, the return from a visit to l"vioscow, Walter Lippmann
remarked thaI in Western democracies in general and in the US in
palticular, public support for armament programs can be difficult
to obtain: "With us [the USA], the necessary appropriations [for
anTIS procurement] cannot be had, or so our political leaders think,
,>;ithout a great scare campaign. "lOne is reminded of Senator
Arthur H. Vandenberg's advice to President Harry S. Truman to
"scare the hen out of the American people" in order to "",in enough
domestic political support to contain perceived Communist
expansion in Greece and Turkey. The result of this tactic was the
expansive Truman Doctrine. Just over five decades later, President
George W. Bush justified a major commitment of national
resources and a substantial sacrifice of human life with the rhetoric
of an ongoing "War on Terror." Soon thereafter, his foreign policy
developed further into the dangerously ambitious Bush Doctrine.
Both Truman and Bush presided over the US at watershed
moments in American history; both responded with drastic
political maneuvers. In order to justifY and maintain these efforts,
the presidents needed domestic support, and in both cases, the
presidents actively sought to "instrumentalize" and "politicize"
religion to gain domestic support It is this connection between
civil religion and foreign policy that is the central finding of
Janicke Stmmer's study.
In 1648, the statesmen concluding the so-called "Peace of
Westphalia" agreed to drastically limit the role of religion in
international politics, although church and religion remained
1 Walter Lippmann, lne Communist World and Ours (Boston: Atlantic Mont.lJiy
Press, 1958), 42.
fixtures in social lire and domestic politics. However, more
recently, religion has not only been "returning from exile,,2 but
seems to be back with a vengeance. In fact, reflecting on the Cold
War as it was coming to a close, John Lewis Gaddis remarked that
"the most surprising evidence of the continuing influence of
ideology has come in the area of religion, where conflicts between
Hindus and Muslims, Arabs and Israelis, Iranians and Iraqis, and
even Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland provide little
reason to think that ideas .,. will not continue to have a major
disruptive potential for international order.,,3
What is more, in the US religious beliefs and attitudes figured
promincntly from colonial timcs onward. For example, the image
of a "City Upon a Hill" has been applied in political contexts from
John Winthrop to Ronald Reagan. Furthermore, the "Shining City"
could be utilized for American domestic purposes as well as for its
foreign policy. While the 'Puritan tradition' in US foreign policy
has been studied in much detail, the domestic "politicization" of
religion for foreign policy maneuvers in more recent times remains
understudied. To be sure, excellent scholarship exists on the
interaction of contempora..ry US foreign policy and public opinion.4
However, not only the instrumentalization of religion in particular,
but also the internal politicization of religion in more recent eras of
US foreign policy still deserves much closer investigation.
It is this particular intersection, where the study of contemporary
US foreign policy, Cold War studies, International Relations,
2 Fabio Petito and Pavlos Hatzopoulos, eds., Religion in International Relations.
111e Returnfrom Exile (New York: Palgrave, 2003)
3 John Lewis Gaddis, The Long Peace, Inquiries Into the History of the Cold
War (New York: Oxford UP, 1987),234.
4 See for example Ole R. Holsti, Public Opinion and American fCJreign Policy,
Analytical Perspectives on Politics (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan
Press, 1996).
ii
Political Science, and Religious Studies intersect, where rigorous
and multidisciplinary studies are needed to enhance our
understanding of how and vl'ith what results religion has been
instrumentalized internally to advance foreign policy objectives of
America's political leadership. There is significant path-breaking
that stiH needs to be done. I believe that the present study presents
a significant milestone in this regard. It has achieved much not
only in terms of adding to the research on religion and foreign
policy, but also in terms of advancing and conceptualizing a
previously marginalized area of research. This valuable study
stands on its own, but also makes a strong case for further
investigations on religion and US foreign policy.
Matthias M. Maass, PhD
Assistant Professor of International Relations
Graduate School ofIntemational Studies
Yonsei University
m