Justifying Hegemony: Henry Luce, United China Relief, and the Orientalist Framework for Global Intervention

In this thesis, I examine the charitable organization United China Relief and its connection to prominent media mogul Henry Luce, along with his vision of American geopolitical hegemony. I situate this inquiry in the context of the US public's shifting image of China, and itself, during the 1930s and 1940s. In order to contextalize my research, I first examine both the history surrounding UCR and the views espoused by Henry Luce in his famous editorial The American Century. After establishing this background, I investigate the connection between the UCR and Henry Luce’s ideolgy through analysis of fundraising advertisements put forth by the UCR. Through this analysis, I examine the image of China that such material puts forth. Finally, I contextualize the UCR's vision of China as a product of America's shifting self-image, giving insight into how US depictions of East Asia reflect America's attempt to justify and affirm its worldview and the foreign policy created from it.