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1936 › Alf Landon (Republican) › Neutrality, arms embargoes and staying out of foreign wars

Promote peace by all honorable means; no League, no World Court, no plan that could involve the U.S. in a war it had no part in beginning

pledge_forwarddirectional_stancecandidate_directevidence A Diplomacy & International InstitutionsWar & Peace similar solutions · similar reasoning

Solution

International arbitration through independent tribunals; arms limitation; no foreign alliances or political commitments.

Rationale

'We shall join in no plan that might involve us in a war in the beginning of which we had no part, or that would build a false peace on the foundation of armed camps.'

Statements (2)

1936-06-11 · Republican National Convention, Cleveland (platform) · conventionparty_platform ✓ verified

Obedient to the traditional foreign policy of America and to the repeatedly expressed will of the American people, we pledge that America shall not become a member of the League of Nations nor of the World Court nor shall America take on any entangling alliances in foreign affairs.

Source: Republican Party Platform of 1936 (1936-06-09)

1936-07-23 · Acceptance address, Topeka · conventioncandidate_direct ✓ verified

We shall take every opportunity to promote among the nations a peace based upon justice and human rights. We shall join in no plan that would take from us that independence of judgment which has made the United States a power for good in the world. We shall join in no plan that might involve us in a war in the beginning of which we had no part, or that would build a false peace on the foundation of armed camps.

Source: Address Accepting the Republican Presidential Nomination in Topeka, Kansas (1936-07-23)

Follow-through

not_applicable

The neutrality acts of 1937 embodied the same anti-entanglement policy; by 1939-41 the winner moved to aid Britain, which Republican isolationists including Landon at first opposed.

Reception (1)

editorialaccuratesalience medium Evening Star (Washington, independent) 1936-07-25

The acceptance speech's foreign-policy passage was brief, nationalist in hue (Borah's influence), and did not differ in any vital respect from the Democrats; both parties meant to 'attend strictly to [their] own knitting.'

It does not differ in any vital respect from the position assumed by the Democrats.

Source: Evening Star editorial page, July 25, 1936 (Landon acceptance)

Other positions on this issue

Keep the United States out of war: true neutrality, take the profits out of war, no political commitments — Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1936 directional_stance

1936-landon-peace-without-entangling-alliances · created by claude-fable-5-1 · review: unreviewed