On The Policy Of The United States Against Spain In The Early Cold War

After the Cold War broke out, in order to build a global defense system and contain the Soviets, U.S. gradually improved relations with Spain which have been excluded from the West. As the Spanish Franco had close relation with German and Italian fascist regime during World War II, Britain, France and other Western countries strongly opposed the measure of U.S.. However, due to the national interests were more important than the ideology, U.S. paid more and more attention to Spanish important strategic position in the context of the Cold War. U.S. firstly introduced the NSC3 document in 1947. From 1950 to 1951, U.S. government approved NSC72 series of documents which finally ascertained U.S. policy toward Spain. In September 1953, U.S. and Spain signed the "US-Spain Mutual Defense Assistant Agreement", which implemented the objectives of U.S. policy toward Spain. Based on the National Security Council document, Foreign Relations of the United States documents, and other archives, U.S. policy toward Spain will be analyzed in this paper.The full text is divided into five parts:The United States' isolation policy toward Spain after World War II will be dealt in the first part. Because of the dictatorial nature and the pro-German, Italian fascist state policy during World War II, Spain was rejected by Western countries after World War II unanimously. The United Nations passed the 1946 resolution in December, which expelled Spain from the United Nations. U.S. always pursued the principles of democracy and freedom conformed to the situation and adopted an isolated policy toward Spain. However, the U.S. military stealthily paid attention to Spain's military strategic value which provided a basis for U.S. to change its policy toward Spain.The transformation process of U.S. policy toward Spain from 1947 to 1950 will be the focus in the second part. The outbreak of the Cold War changed U.S. policy toward Spain. In 1947, U.S. firstly introduced the NSC3 document which marked a major transition and began to consider Spain's military value. From 1950 to 1951, U.S. government approved NSC72 series of documents which finally ascertained U.S. policy toward Spain. The objectives of this policy were developing the military potential of Spain and bringing Spain into NATO as early as possibly.The implementation process of U.S. policy toward Spain will be expounded in the third part. In order to achieve the objective of U.S. policy toward Spain, after difficult negotiations from 1952 to 1953, U.S. and Spain signed the "US-Spain Mutual Defense Assistant Agreement" finally. U.S. accessed to military bases in Spain and provided military and economic assistance to Spain, two countries reached a win-win results. The character and influence of U.S. policy toward Spain will be analyzed in the fourth part. The character included U.S. aid for military bases, the policy from military aid to economic assistance, Western Europe strongly opposed U.S. policy toward Spain and so on. The analysis of the character that the Western European countries unanimously opposed to U.S. policy changes toward Spain will be the focus in this part. On the aspect of influence, the implementation of U.S. policy toward Spain was an important factor which helped Spain return to the international arena and maintain the Franco regime. In the same time, U.S. policy toward Spain played a certain role to the economic development of Spain.The last part is the conclusion which sums up U.S. policy toward Spain during this period and reveals the deeper meaning of this policy. The evolution of U.S. policy toward Spain during the early Cold War period reflected the sharp and harsh characteristic of the Cold War from one aspect. Although U.S. took into account the importance of ideological factor, but the national interests was the priority. Although the Spanish authoritarian regime conflicted with the principles of Western democracy seriously, U.S. still chose to implement friendly policies toward Spain, then tore up the mask of democracy and freedom that U.S. always claim and revealed the nature of her national self-serving.