ABSTRACT
The modern genesis of a bipartisan foreign policy came during the war in connection with postwar planning. In 1947 and 1948 the control of Congress shifted to the Republicans, Senator Vandenberg consolidated his position of foreign policy leadership, and the core of the postwar bipartisan foreign policy of containing the Soviet Union within its existing sphere was formulated. More thorough bipartisan consultation accompanied the establishment of the Marshall Plan or European Recovery Program. The North Atlantic Treaty is also widely considered an excellent example of bipartisan foreign policy. Complaints about lack of bipartisanship in legislative-executive cooperation were also raised after the withdrawal of Marines from Lebanon in 1984. Nicaraguan policy came to exemplify a partisan legislative-executive impasse, where neither the policy sought by neither the Administration nor the policy sought by the congressional majority could receive full-hearted support. The legislative-executive agreement also addressed the process of bipartisan consultation.
