ABSTRACT
In the early 1940s, the United States finally took its place, irreversibly, as a leader among the world’s nations. By the end of that decade, we had put aside our traditional insistence on isolation from European conflicts and had committed ourselves to a set of mutual defense treaties with nations not only in Europe, but in Latin America and Asia. Congress appropriated $1 billion for a “two-ocean navy,” and in the 1940 presidential campaign, both major parties supported increased spending for national defense, aid to Britain, and strong defense of the western hemisphere. Yet both platforms still opposed participation in “foreign” wars. In 1952, as the Korean War bogged down into a gory stalemate, Senator John Bricker, who had been the Republican vice-presidential candidate in 1944, prepared a constitutional amendment to protect against the perceived dangers of presidential war-making.
