ABSTRACT
The roots of American foreign policy in Asia extend to the formative experiences of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. More coherence for US foreign policy was provided by President Woodrow Wilson. The president seemed determined to shift the emphasis of US policy from power toward morality, and to give less attention to seeking specific short-term advantages over the Soviet Union. President Reagan could thus point to an early success for quiet diplomacy, and Seoul felt it had a firm friend in the White House. The situation changed markedly as the United States fought a war in the Philippines, started a naval expansion program, and acquired Pacific possessions. The American military began considering the possibility of war with Japan, which, too, was developing as a military power in the Asian-Pacific region. The military-strategic consideration of the Cold War provided the key to Asian international affairs and American-East Asian relations for at least two decades, the 1950s and 1960s.
