During the transition of the United States into the twentieth century, progressive movements flooded the country. Progressive presidents were needed to allow these progressive ideologies to manifest in policy. The three presidents who are contributed with helping these progressive policies are Roosevelt, Wilson, and Taft. The foreign policy of Roosevelt, Wilson, and Taft had similarities as they promoted more progressive policies, but also differed in many aspects.
As President of the United States, Roosevelt’s foreign policy was coined by the phrase “speak softly, and carry a big stick”. Roosevelt desired to expand US influence abroad and to expel the influences of countries in Europe. He promoted the Spanish American War and desired US domination of Central and South America. He sought to expand the United States through peaceful negotiations backed with a powerful military and a huge navy. An example of Roosevelt’s policies favoring the United States and showing the ‘Big Stick’ ideals was during the Panama Canal diplomacies. Roosevelt used the revolutionary forces of the people of panama who wanted independence from Columbia to achieve his goal of acquiring the rights of the area to create a Panama Canal.
President Taft continued a similar foreign policy to that of Roosevelt. He also wanted to assert American dominance over its neighbors and protect American interests. Taft is generally known for what is now called “dollar diplomacy”. He wanted to invest heavily in the development of poor foreign markets. The idea was that if the United States could help create growing economies then American companies would be able to trade and compete and grow in those foreign markets, thus bringing America more wealth.
A slight change of course was experienced under the foreign policy of President Wilson. Wilson was more concerned about the morality behind American foreign policy. He wanted to remain neutral in foreign conflicts and ran for his second term on the premise that he kept America out of World War I. Wilson recognized something that Roosevelt or Taft had not. He realized that more and more peoples of the world were determined to control their own destinies. The U.S. under Wilson was looking for a way to support these peoples’ democratic aspirations while safeguarding its own economic interests. In other words, he felt that the spread of democracy was morally correct, but the spread of US territory was not necessarily justified.
Each president carried out their own set of ideals on foreign policy. Roosevelt with his big stick, determined to spread American influence, Taft with the promotion of foreign markets in order to serve American interests, and Wilson with his “Idealist” foreign policy of non-intervention and neutrality. The foreign policy advice given to the United States by one of our great founding fathers and our first president, George Washington, was that the united states should remain neutral in foreign conflicts and tend to ourselves. This most resembles the foreign policy ideals of the presidency of Woodrow Wilson, whether or not this was actually carried out is debatable.