Arthur H. Vandenberg

Michigan publisher who traded isolationism for the bipartisan internationalism that built the postwar order.

Overview

A onetime isolationist and 1940 presidential aspirant, Vandenberg underwent a public conversion, telling the Senate in January 1945 that he no longer believed peace could be protected by unilateral action. As Foreign Relations chairman from 1947 he shepherded the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, and the UN redesign through the Senate with Republican votes, and his 1948 resolution inviting collective security pacts became the foundation for NATO. His practice of consulting the White House across party lines established the tradition of bipartisanship in foreign policy that endured into the 1960s.