ABSTRACT
The intervention in Vietnam and the nonintervention in Angola have raised some questions about American foreign policy that cannot be avoided. The Angola incident does not mean that the United States has discarded military intervention as a means of foreign policy. The real boost came with Joseph McCarthy’s witch hunt, whipping the whole country into an hysterical frenzy against communism. American anticommunism was all-inclusive. It condemned with equal force and authority all activities inside or outside the country that had the slightest trace of communist elements. The threat of being dubbed “soft on communism” became an effective deterrent to those who felt uneasy about a national policy presented in solid black, with no further qualifications or specifications. Hans J. Morgenthau and George Kennan may not always have had identical definitions of what was or ought to be America’s national interests, but in 1967 they agreed on the need for a selective approach to anticommunism.
