In the 1920 election, Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge were the Republican candidates for president and vice president. Harding had promised Americans a return to "normalcy", though he never clarified what he meant by this term, it still attracted many Americans as for them it meant that there lives would be going back to normal when there was no tension and worries about the war and other problems. Harding and Coolidge soon won a landslide victory in the 1920 election due to their popular beliefs. Harding, during his time in office appointed many talented people in his cabinet yet many other important positions were given to unworthy and corrupt people simply because they were from the same state as president Harding, these group of people would become known as the "Ohio Gang". One of the scandals in the Harding administration that would soon become a symbol of corruption in the government would be the "Teapot Dome". This problem arose due to the "Ohio Gang" member Albert Fall who was the secretary of the interior during this time. In 1922, Fall leased government oil reserves to two oil companies, as the companies had payed him more than $400,000 to buy the oil reserves. Fall was eventually convicted of taking a bribe and was soon the first cabinet member ever to go to prison. These scandals would begin to trouble Harding and he would soon leave on a vacation, but on the trip he would have a heart attack and would pass away, leaving Coolidge to take office as America's new president. Coolidge's administration was very different from Harding's administration in many ways, for one thing Coolidge appointed honest people into government positions and replaced many people of the "Ohio Gang". In addition, he led investigations about the Teapot Dome scandal. However, both Harding and Coolidge had similar beliefs on how much the government should interfere with businesses and other private affairs. Both presidents believed in the laissez-faire, which was the idea of involving in business affairs as little as possible. This plan was based upon the idea that if the federal government were to disappear then most people would not get affected by it to a severe degree. However, Coolidge did not completely ignore business, in fact, he supported many policies to help businesses thrive. For example, Coolidge had Congress pass many laws to support businesses. The Coolidge government cut spending and cut tax rates for corporations while raising tariffs. The Coolidge administration also overturned laws that regulated child labor and women's wages helping businesses to make more profits. Due to these changes Coolidge was popularly known as "a friend to businesses”.  

Many of the similarities between Coolidge and Harding's administration was in the way they handled foreign policy. Both presidents strongly believed that the United States should continue isolationism just as they done before World War I, isolationism was the idea that America should have a very limited role in world affairs. This policy was readily accepted by the American people due to their desire for "normalcy" which was the desire for things to go back to normal as they were before the problems and responsibilities that came along with WWI. The United States also did not want to join the League of Nations though this organization was designed by American president Woodrow Wilson. President Harding promised the American people that the United states would not get involved in any foreign alliances nor would they join the League of Nations. However, these promises did not stop both presidents (Harding & Coolidge) from working towards world peace. In the years after the civil was the United States, Britain, and Japan had the strongest army, but to prevent a build up of another war and to establish balance around the world the nations along with France and Italy signed the Five-Power Treaty in 1922. This treaty said that all of the countries apart of it would limit their naval forces, this treaty would become the first agreement in modern history in which the "strong nations agreed to disarm". Soon in 1928, keeping the goal of world peace in mind the United states and 14 other countries signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact which outlawed war, in a few more years 48 other nations will have signed this treaty as well, but because the treaty had no way to enforce these agreements and no way make sure that all countries followed them the pact would eventually turn out to be unsuccessful. Another big change that came along in the 1920s was foreign policy in Latin America. American troops had been in Latin America since the early 1900s to protect business interests there, but this arrangement would soon begin to cause tensions between the U.S and these Latin American countries. So in the 1920s the U.S tried to take a more peaceful approach and settle tensions down, to achieve this troops were withdrawn from countries like the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua after those countries held their elections. After the U.S settled this matter Mexico ignited a new problem by threatening the American government that they would take over companies owned by foreigners on their land. However, rather than escalating the situation or sending troops back to Mexico to make more problems, President Coolidge negotiated peacefully with Mexico and eventually reached an agreement with them. All in all the 1920s was a time when America worked closer to world peace and conflict-free foreign affairs.