ABSTRACT
Most observers of the US political scene agree that US foreign policy has been in transition during the 1970s. The Vietnam experience and the new balance of nuclear terror between the United States and the Soviet Union have taught people that military intervention outside North America can be costly and dangerous and must be undertaken only for national interests that are truly vital to the well-being of the country. The huge US balance of trade deficits at the end of 1977 and the sharp decline in the value of the dollar were signals of a potential economic crisis that could have vast repercussions for both the domestic economy and the world economic order. Several major events occurred during the early months of 1978 that provided hope that the US government was beginning to pull itself together on foreign policy and to deal effectively with a series of international issues that had been left in abeyance for several years.
