ABSTRACT
Although the United States has never prioritized traditional diplomacy in the way that Europeans have, American involvement in World War II demanded that the US State Department expand its Foreign Service if for no other reason than to keep up with its allies in working to identify political solutions that could facilitate military victory. Other issues related to the war's outcome began to denigrate the role of the State Department in US foreign policy decision making. The National Security Act of 1947 established the Department of Defense, the CIA and the National Security Council, and separating the old Army Air Corps from US Army control, designating it as a distinct military service, the US Air Force. Although the role of the State Department was sublimated to military-led counterinsurgency and regime change operations for much of the postwar era, the US was forced by the weight of events to briefly reconsider the value of traditional diplomacy during the early 1970s.
