Introduction : history and the transcendence of the tragic -- Imperial anticolonialism. The transformation of the expanionist outlook ; The crisis of the 1890s and the turn to imperialism -- The imperialism of idealism -- The rising tide of revolution -- The legend of isolationism. A great debate over the tactics of empire ; The internationalization of business -- The war for the American frontier -- The nightmare of depression and the vision of omnipotence. Roosevelt and Stalin confront the dilemmas of victory ; The Open Door Policy and the onset of the Cold War ; A new vision of omnipotence and a misreading of history prompt the United States to overplay its hand ; The diplomacy of the vicious circle -- The impotence of nuclear supremacy -- The terrifying momentum toward disaster -- Conclusion : the wisdom of an Open Door for revolutions -- "The tragedy of Ameican diplomacy" : twenty-five years after / by Bradford Perkins.

One of the first modern historians to integrate economic realities into the study of American foreign policy, William Appleman has been a diplomatic historian of major influence since the first publication of the Tragedy of American Diplomacy. In this pioneering book, " the man who has really put the counter - tradition together in its modern form " ( Saturday Review ) examines the profound contradictions between Americas's ideals and its uses of its vast power, from the Open Door Notes of 1898 to the Bay of Pigs and the Vietnam war.