The Influence Of Soviet Union On The Far Eastern Policy Of The U.S. From 1931 To 1941

During the ten years before the Pacific War broke out, it was apparent that the Soviet Union had been a great influence over the development of the Far Eastern situation and the U.S. policy. The Soviet factors not only had great impact on the Far Eastern international relations, but also helped the U.S. government to understand, evaluate and predict the Far Eastern situation and make decisions. This dissertation is supposed to analyse the Soviet Union’s influence upon American Far Eastern policy in each stage by reviewing the observations of the U.S. government on the Soviet Union’s Far Eastern situation and its responses to the situation. We may say, Soviet factors can be found in every phase of the U.S. Far Eastern policy before the Pacific War broke out.Aside from the introduction and the conclusion parts, there are six chapters in this dissertation. Chapter One provides with the historical background of U.S.-Japan-Russia triangular relations in East Asia. Even in these early years, Russia was playing a great part in the formation of the U.S. Far Eastern policy. At the end of the 19th Century, the national interests of America, Japan and Russia collided in East Asia. To the Americans, Russia was a competitor, but also can be considered as the potential partner in dealing with Japan. They realized that the maximum interest of the U.S. depends on keeping the balance of power between Russia and Japan, so that neither can acquire the dominancy in the Far East. Consequently, whenever this balance tended to tilt, the U.S government became very concerned and tried to intervene. Traditionally, the U.S. Far Eastern policy was in essence the policy of balance of power.Chapter Two deal with the Soviet Factors in U.S. responses to the Manchurian Incident and the change of the opinion of the American government about the U.S.S.R. during this crisis. At the beginning of the incident, the Hoover Administration, sticking to the traditional non-recognition policy, didn’t want to involve the Soviet Union in Chinese-Japanese conflict. Besides, ideological prejudices kept some American officials from realizing the real danger of this Japanese new invasion. On the contrary, they even deemed Japan as a barrier to Communism. The fear of communism in some way facilitated U.S. decision-makers to indulge Japan, hoping Japan might return to the Washington System by itself. However, this dream was finally disillusioned by Japanese taking control of the whole Manchurian Area. Meanwhile, the U.S. government attentively observed the Soviet Union’s responses to the incident and the development of the Soviet-Japanese relations. As a result, the American officials reconfirmed the permanent conflict of between the interests of these two nations. With the gradual deterioration of the Far Eastern situation, the U.S. government started to realize the importance of the Soviet Union. In the end of 1933, Roosevelt administration recognized the Soviet regime on its own initiative, which symbolized the first step for the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. to cooperate in dealing with Japan.Chapter Three tries to illustrate the Soviet Factors in the Roosevelt administration’s "drifting policy" between 1933 and 1937. Firstly, this period was just the time when Japan was about to launch war against the Soviet Union. It’s no wonder that the American government would not be a cat’s paw and offended Japan. Besides, the American officials had such high hopes about the effect of the recovery and development of the Soviet’s power in the Far East in checking Japan that they desired to keep silent, in case the process may be interrupted by accident. Furthermore, the deterioration of American-Soviet relations prevented the two governments from further cooperation in the Far East.Chapter Four intends to explain the role of Soviet factors in the modification of the U.S. Far Eastern policy from 1938 to 1939. As the Sino-Japanese War went on, Japanese activities increasingly endangered American interest in the Far East and the security in the world. The U.S. government must adjust its Far Eastern policy to the new situation. America must stand in the fore front in stopping Japan. However, Soviet influences were not absent from the scene. First of all, the existence of Soviet-Japan contradicts and the Soviet Union’s powerful forces in the Far East in some way pushed the U.S. government to take a firm stand toward Japan. Secondly, the potential political influence of the Soviet Union in China also increased the will of the U.S. government to help China, so as to keep influential in China’s future initial politics. The decision to grant Tung-Oil Loan to China and the decision to end the American-Japanese Commercial and Navigation Agreement was partly made in this background.Chapter Five narrates the observations and remarks of the U.S. officials about the Soviet-Japanese and the Soviet-Germany relations after the European War broke out. After a period of careful observation, U.S. officials concluded:the signing of the Soviet-Germany Nonaggression Treaty was actually helpful to the Far East situation; The Soviet government never prepared to materially change its policy toward Japan and China; Soviet-Japanese relations were still hard to improve. Besides, the Soviet Union didn’t completely join the Axis Group. On the contrary, after the Surrender of France, the Soviet-Germany relationship became increasingly tense; Soviet-German War seemed imminent. Therefore, the U.S. government refused to take the advice by some officials to appease Japan to prevent it from compromising with the Soviet Union, and stuck to the standing Far Eastern policy of deterring Japan. The signing of the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact didn’t do much damage on American government’s determination.Chapter Six means to exhibit the radical change of American-Soviet-Japanese triangular relations after the breakout of the Soviet-German War. After the war broke out, on the one side, the U.S. and the Soviet Union became official allies; on the other, Japan became the common enemy of the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Because the Soviet Union’s war effort against Germany made the balance of power in the Far East more unstable, the U.S. government must be more active in Far Eastern affairs and more determined to bring more pressure to Japan:First of all, the U.S. government needed to protect the Soviet Union from Japanese attacks so that the Soviet Union can focus on the war against the Nazi Germany. Secondly, the start of the Soviet-German battleground made the existence of Chinese battleground more important, and the U.S. must increase their aid to China. Thirdly, American aid to the Soviet Union directly irritates the American relationship with Japan, and became a great obstacle in American-Japanese negotiations. In addition, having the Soviet Union on its own side, the U.S. government felt more confident and determined in carrying out the deterrence policy toward Japan.