p The foreign policy of the Republican Administration in that period reflected above all the growing expansionist strivings of American imperialism. The US financial elite 83 carried on the struggle for world hegemony with redoubled energy. Expansion through financial and economic measures was the prime conduit of their ambitions. Therefore, the foreign policy of the Coolidge Administration was conducted under the banner of isolationism. The Republican Administration continued its earlier rejection of military and political alliances with the European countries, defending the slogan of an unrestrained free hand for the United States.

p The most important foreign policy thrust was concentrated in the struggle to expand foreign trade, capture new markets, and increase overseas investments. Throughout the 1920s the USA firmly maintained the first place in world export figures, and in 1929 for the first time in history it surpassed Great Britain in the total volume of foreign trade. Foreign investments spiralled. Private investments alone amounted to $16.5 billion by the early 1930s; together with government loans total US foreign capital investment reached $27 billion. The immense scale of the export of capital brought colossal returns for the American monopolies. Annual profit from foreign investments stood at some $850 million.

p The US economic expansion was particularly active in Latin America. Guided by the ideology of pan-Americanism and the Monroe Doctrine, the USA penetrated ever deeper into the Latin American economy, driving out its basic competitor, Britain. While before World War I the US capital investment was only a quarter of that of Britain, by 1929 the US accounted for 95 percent of all investment in Latin America. The strengthening of US economic positions south of its borders brought with it stepped-up interference by American imperialism in the internal affairs of the Latin American countries. By the close of the 1920s 14 of the 20 Latin American states were to one or another degree under the economic, political or military control of the United States. To defend its privileges the Coolidge Administration on several occasions "sent in the marines" who dealt ruthlessly with participants in the national liberation movement. In one case, in December 1926 American marines were landed in Nicaragua. After restoring their overthrown hirelings to power, American troops stayed on for several years to 84 combat the patriotic forces in this small Latin American country. US armed forces retained their presence in Panama, Haiti, Cuba and a number of other Central American countries as well.

p The Far East was a major concern of American foreign policy—and China in particular. Here, too, the US made some progress in edging out its imperialist competitors. By the end of the 1920s American trade with China was double the figure for British trade. Still, Japan retained its primacy over the Chinese market. The USA continued to lag far behind both Japan and Britain in the volume of investments in China. In these circumstances the US ruling circles were keenly interested in maintaining the Nine-Power Treaty on China and particularly in the observance of the "open door" and "equal weight" principles, reckoning that economic superiority would in time permit the United States to extend its control over both the economy and political life of China entirely.

p In the way of such expansionist ambitions were, however, not merely the resistance of US competitors but also, and above all, the national liberation movement of the Chinese people. Thus, despite the acute contradictions, the USA, Britain, and Japan made haste to unite their strength when the incipient Chinese revolution confronted them with a serious threat. In subsequent years the imperialists made several armed interferences in the internal affairs of China. When in the spring of 1927 the revolutionary units of the Chinese proletariat made major gains and took control of Shanghai and Nanking, American and British warships subjected Nanking to a cruel artillery barrage. The United States and other powers contributed to no small degree to the success of the subsequent counterrevolutionary coup of the right wing of the Kuomintang under Chiang Kaishek. In July 1928 the United States was the first to recognize the reactionary clique of Chiang Kai-shek as the central government of China, for which favor it was granted a number of new privileges in the country. The struggle of the imperialist powers to consolidate their positions in China now proceeded with renewed force.

p Finally, the US position in Europe was also significantly bolstered. The preaching of isolationism by no means interfered with an annual increase of loans and credits to the West European countries. Moreover, the USA began a more active interference in European affairs with the goal of establishing its financial hegemony there as well.

p The growing influence of American imperialism in Europe was manifested in the active role the USA played in the question of reparations. It was at US initiative that a new reparations plan, worked out by an international committee of experts under the chairmanship of the Chicago banker Charles G. Dawes, was accepted. According to the Dawes Plan, which went into effect in August 1924, Britain, France, Belgium and other European countries would pay their war debts to the USA by reparations payments received from Germany. In order to strengthen the financial situation of Germany and, consequently, ensure the regular flow of reparations payment it was decided to give Germany big loans. Here, naturally, the chief creditor was to be the United States. The Dawes Plan, in the designs of US ruling elite, was to guarantee the dominance of American imperialism in Germany and then ensure the maintenance of a secure financial hegemony over the rest of Europe. Anti-Soviet calculations, and namely the ambition to utilize Germany as a weapon in the struggle against the Soviet Union, were not at the bottom of the list of US considerations in its chosen stance toward Germany.

p However, the Dawes Plan, while giving the American monopolies substantial financial advantages, turned out to be even more lucrative for the German bourgeoisie. Admittedly, at first, the sizeable flow of foreign capital heightened German dependency. But this was a transient phenomenon. Loans in ten figures, primarily from the American capitalists, allowed the German bourgeoisie to restore the country’s economic potential already by the close of the 1920s and to bring her back into the ranks of the great powers, once again establishing the groundwork for the rapid rebirth of the military might of German imperialism. This was how the United States contributed to the strengthening of Germany’s 86 positions and to an alteration of the balance of forces in the world capitalist system.

p The growing financial and economic expansionism practised by American imperialism, huge sums of export capital and the investment thrust in other economies left the American government with the task of defending US economic interests throughout the globe. But the military and naval strength of the USA lagged far behind its economic might. Therefore, in the second half of the 1920s official Washington came forth with a peace program, hoping to reach its goals primarily through economic expansion and "dollar diplomacy”. The position of the American government was strongly influenced by a powerful group of traditional isolationists clustered around Senator Borah and by the propaganda efforts of numerous pacifist organizations.

p These were the reasons prompting the Coolidge Administration to take up the cause of bourgeois pacifism. After protracted negotiations between Secretary of State Frank Kellogg, French Minister of Foreign Affairs A. Briand and a number of representatives from other countries an international agreement was signed in August 1928 renouncing war as a means of national policy. This agreement went down in history as the Briand-Kellogg Pact.

p In signing the pact and skilfully manipulating the pacifist illusions of the people, the US ruling circles were intending to employ the agreement as an important element of their imperialist policies. On the basis of this agreement they endeavored to establish under American leadership a new international organization to be counterposed to the League of Nations. The Briand-Kellogg Pact was to serve as a tool to help establish American hegemony in Europe and then throughout the globe.

The subsequent course of international events cast aside the US foreign policy strategic designs. The world economic crisis which commenced in 1929 seriously undermined the position of the USA internationally, brought to the point of no return rivalries among the imperialist powers and forced Washington politicians to seek new avenues to carry out the expansionist goals of the USA.