Thread by @ProfPaulPoast

Shocked by the Biden administration's (lack of) response towards the #COVID19 crisis in 🇮🇳? Stunned that export constraints are taking priority over humanitarian assistance?

Don't be. 🇺🇸 has a long history of being an a**hole in foreign policy.

[THREAD]

I'm not going to recount every instance in history.

But suffice it to say, they are not all from the Trump era
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Instead, let's recount instances where the US refused economic assistance (via exporting a good or providing financial relief) to an ally (formal or nominal) in a crisis.

Those are cases most similar to 🇺🇸🇮🇳 relations at the moment: 🇮🇳 is a nominal ally (via the Quad).

Indeed, since folks seem fond of using US economic and foreign policy efforts during World War I and World War II to describe US #COVID19 response, let's draw mostly on those: after all, they were pretty big crises.

So here are the "Top 5 A***hole moments of 🇺🇸 Foreign Policy" during World Wars I and II.

#5: While the US ultimately continued to supply wheat to the allies during World War I, there was a BIG push for a wheat export embargo. The argument was, "how can you feed starving Europeans when prices are rising at home"
jstor.org/stable/3741259…

#4: The Marshall Plan was great, but in the immediate aftermath of World War II, the Truman administration's response to the dire economic conditions in Europe was 🤷‍♂️: abruptly cut off lend-lease, force 🇬🇧to negotiate a new loan.
tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.108…

#3: During World War II, 🇺🇸 compelled 🇬🇧, who was in the midst of desperately holding off Nazi Germany, to grant full control of bases as payment for destroyers...but then gave 🇬🇧 decrepit destroyers the 🇺🇸 was going to decommission anyhow.
cfr.org/blog/twe-remem…

#2: Refusing to forgive inter-allied loans following World War I. 🇺🇸 didn't need the money and there was concern that insisting on repayment could destabilize Europe. The Wilson administration even refused to discuss them during the Paris Conference.
online.ucpress.edu/phr/article-ab…

#1: Not relaxing immigration controls to allow thousands of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution to enter the US.
smithsonianmag.com/history/us-gov…

Returning the issue of 🇺🇸 #COVID19 assistance to 🇮🇳, it now appears (🤞) that action will be taken

https://twitter.com/SheenaGreitens/status/1386150443705847809

So while the US government can be an a***hole, it's also the case that, as Churchill allegedly said, "Americans can always be trusted to do the right thing, once all other possibilities have been exhausted.”

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