This book argues for the importance of Arthur H. Vandenberg’s role in America’s conversion to a new status in the world, placing Vandenberg’s name alongside other influential figures such as George Kennan, Dean Acheson, and John Foster Dulles. Vandenberg was a public man, well aware of his importance to his community, party, and nation. As co-secretary of state, he played a major role in bringing the Republican Party into a bipartisan relationship with the Truman administration. As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1947 and 1948 and as ranking Republican on that committee i ... More

This book argues for the importance of Arthur H. Vandenberg’s role in America’s conversion to a new status in the world, placing Vandenberg’s name alongside other influential figures such as George Kennan, Dean Acheson, and John Foster Dulles. Vandenberg was a public man, well aware of his importance to his community, party, and nation. As co-secretary of state, he played a major role in bringing the Republican Party into a bipartisan relationship with the Truman administration. As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1947 and 1948 and as ranking Republican on that committee in 1949, Vandenberg was arguably the key factor in moving the nation from its isolationist past to an internationalist future. The Conversion of Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg attempts to flesh out his conversion from isolationism to internationalism, with appreciation for the limits as well as the extent of his achievements. It follows Vandenberg’s political odyssey from his time as an arch-isolationist in the 1930s to becoming an ardent internationalist after World War II, and outlines his involvement in the passage of the Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, North Atlantic Treaty, and Military Assistance Program. Moreover, this study concentrates on Vandenberg’s work establishing the United Nations as the template for U.S. foreign policy after 1945 and analyzes his potential nationalist bias that called his conversion to internationalism into question.