Spirit of the Nation: American Whiskey and US Power in the Cold War

In 1964, the United States Congress passed a little noticed resolution declaring bourbon a “distinctive product of the United States.” Often remembered today as a symbolic affirmation of heritage, the resolution was, in fact, the culmination of a decade‑long effort by American distillers to integrate whiskey into the postwar architecture of U.S. economic power. This paper argues that in the 1950s and early 1960s, American whiskey functioned as both a commodity with American cultural power and an analogue to American global geopolitical influence.

The article centers on Lewis Rosenstiel, head of Schenley Distillers and one of the most powerful figures in the mid‑century spirits industry. Anticipating shortages during the Korean War, Rosenstiel oversaw massive overproduction, leaving the industry awash in surplus bourbon by the mid‑1950s. Facing evaporating profits as millions of gallons aged in warehouses, Rosenstiel and his allies pursued foreign markets with renewed urgency. They lobbied for regulatory reform, launched global marketing campaigns, and worked to secure international trade recognition for bourbon through legal designation and tariff negotiations. By framing bourbon as a nationally distinctive product, distillers sought parity with Scotch whisky and French cognac within the evolving framework of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

Drawing on congressional records, trade publications, and diplomatic correspondence, this paper traces how whiskey producers coordinated with U.S. officials to lower foreign tariffs, promote American spirits abroad, and embed bourbon within the broader strategies of economic liberalization. In doing so, it reframes postwar U.S. power through the circulation of a material good. As American power grew, so did the reach of American whiskey. Whiskey, this paper concludes, was not merely exported alongside American influence, but rather emphasized and reinforced the logics of postwar capitalism itself.