Introduction

The theme of this chapter is the influence of the United States of America on the development of international health organisations in Western Europe. The period focused upon is the short four-year span between 1918 and 1922 during which new international organisational bases were being created for the health work of the League of Nations (LN) and major conflicts were occasioned among existing organisations. It was a time of the building of new power bases and political structures in the context of the Paris Peace Conference; it was also the period in which domestic health policies were being negotiated in separate national discourses.

I will argue that American influence in international health organisations was exercised through the powerful corporate philanthropic organisations of the American Red Cross (ARC) and the Rockefeller Foundation (RF). The influence of the RF, through the International Health Board, on public health in Europe has been documented and researched. The role of the American Red Cross, under the chairmanship of Henry Davison, and its War Council has been less studied, although Howard-Jones suggests it may have been pivotal in the formation of the Health Section of the LN.

Background

The United States played a major role in the post-war construction, financing and design of what were two of the largest international health organisations in the world, the League of Red Cross Societies (LRCS) and the League of Nations Health Organisation (LNHO), the forerunner of the World Health Organisation (WHO).