Page "United States non-interventionism" Paragraph 3

Thomas Paine is generally credited with instilling the first non-interventionist ideas into the American body politic ; his work Common Sense contains many arguments in favor of avoiding alliances.

These ideas introduced by Paine took such a firm foothold that the Second Continental Congress struggled against forming an alliance with France and only agreed to do so when it was apparent that the American Revolutionary War could be won in no other manner.