Meat Exports and the Limits of Wartime Multilateralism

Abstract

During the Second World War, the United States transitioned gradually to a foreign policy of "multilateral engagement" from a policy of "unilateral political disengagement." One of those tasked with implementing policy, Secretary of Agriculture Claude Wickard, reverted to nationalism and unilateralism when pressed to implement a promise to expand meat exports to Britain as part of an effort to maximize efficiency in usage of refrigerated shipping capacity during the Battle of the Atlantic. This episode illustrates the challenges in this transition and also depicts the broader managerial context of maritime warfare, ranging far beyond anti-submarine warfare to questions of shipping allocation, cargo provision, and inter-Allied relations. Thus this chapter by Kevin Smith integrates the study of resource management, scarcity, alliance diplomacy, and maritime warfare.