Hi guys, first time posting here. I'm writing a research paper on the potential effect America's foreign policy during the 1960's and 1970's on the popularity of state sponsored welfare within the United States.
More specifically, my thought is that prior to Vietnam, America embarked on state building. That is, it would go into countries and work on improving its infrastructure. At the same time, the United States also had an interest in state building within its own borders (War on Poverty, Great Society, etc.). Yet after Vietnam the United States cared far less about state building in foreign countries. While it's been revived today, its being done on the cheap and with more reliance on local governments to build up infrastructure and provide programs (think Iraq and Afghanistan).
My hypothesis is that Vietnam, and the decline of interest in foreign state building, had an effect on the degree to which Americans were interested providing welfare for its citizens.
I'm unsure of where to start. I gotten one book on Daniel Patrick Moynihan to begin with but I'm looking for some more.
I'm willing to tweak my thesis based on what research I come across. But yeah, any help would be appreciated!
Interesting topic! Are you looking for primary or secondary sources mostly? I can't think of anyone who's made this link specifically, but one thing that does spring to mind is the "population control" movement of the 60s/70s - this wasn't so much a matter of foreign policy, but it was a case of people looking at the rest of the world from within the United States, and using what they thought they saw there to support an anti-liberal/anti-welfare agenda domestically. Check out The Population Bomb or look up Zero Population Growth for a couple examples.