The soul of American diplomacy: Religion and foreign policy, 1945--1960.

摘要

This work explores the religious dimensions of American foreign policy in the early Cold War years. Twentieth-century American Protestantism, American diplomacy, and the Truman and Eisenhower Administrations comprise the main subjects of this dissertation, which is based on research in the archives of American religious and political leaders and institutions, as well as analysis of published sources.; Besides the well established political, economic, and security concerns that motivated the United States' opposition to the Soviet Union, a simple yet powerful set of theological convictions also determined the United States' decision to resist Soviet expansion. In particular, Presidents Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower believed that human rights and freedoms were endowed by God, that God had called the United States to play a special role in the world, and that Soviet communism was especially evil because of its atheism and its enmity to all religious faith.; American Protestant churches experienced many divisions during this time. Internal differences over theology and politics hindered the ability of Protestant leaders to influence the nation's public discourse or the shape of American foreign policy. Frustrated at these internecine disputes, Truman and Eisenhower attempted instead to construct a new civil religion, doctrinally inclusive and militantly anticommunist.; This public theology defined the American identity in spiritual terms, and determined the American role in the world. It was used to mobilize domestic support for Cold War measures, to determine the strategic boundaries of containment, to appeal to people of all religious faiths around the world to form a united spiritual front against communism, and to undermine the authority of communist governments within their own countries.; A series of case studies involving the two presidents as well as other political leaders, including Congressman Walter Judd, Senator H. Alexander Smith, and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, demonstrates the various ways in which diplomatic theology informed American foreign policy. Taken together, they illustrate how and why for many Americans, the Cold War was a religious war.