200th Anniversary of the Monroe Doctrine
U.S. Imperialist Presidential Doctrines to Take Over the World
This year marks 200 years since the United States declared all of Latin America and the Caribbean within its sphere of influence. On December 2, 1823, President James Monroe outlined what became known as the Monroe Doctrine. He warned other nations to stay out of the Americas, saying, "We should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety." Over the past 200 years, the Monroe Doctrine has been repeatedly used to justify scores of invasions, interventions and CIA regime changes in the Americas.
Since James Monroe enunciated his doctrine in 1823, at a time the U.S. was referred to as the "empire of reason," a task of the U.S. presidency has been to put forward empire-building aspirations. It has done this while maintaining a republican form of governance for its federal arrangement, rooted in the U.S. Constitution. Specifically, the Monroe Doctrine lay U.S. claim to the affairs of the western hemisphere against the European Holy Alliance and other powers' desire to colonize or monopolize markets in the Americas, including the Caribbean. At the same time, the Doctrine raised the profile of the President in foreign affairs. In its initial incarnation, this covered its war against the Indigenous Peoples across the continent and for the colonial expansion of the slave power.
In this regard, under President James Polk (1845-1849), the Monroe Doctrine provided the explicit rationale for the war against Mexico in 1845 and for colonizing the southwest and western parts of the continent under the messianic banner of "manifest destiny."
The Spanish-American War of 1898 ended Spain's colonial empire in the Western Hemisphere. U.S. victory in the war produced a peace treaty that compelled the Spanish to relinquish claims on Cuba, and to cede sovereignty over Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines to the United States. Cuban revolutionaries had waged a three-year war prior to this to gain independence from Spanish colonial rule. The United States also annexed the independent state of Hawaii during the conflict. Thus, the war enabled the United States to establish its predominance in the Caribbean region and to pursue its strategic and economic interests in Asia.[1]
At the outset of the modern imperialist epoch, in 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt put forward a corollary to the Monroe Doctrine when he asserted the U.S. demand that neighbouring states be "stable, orderly, and prosperous."[2]
Referring to a crisis between Venezuela and its creditors which he deemed could spark an invasion of that nation by European powers, the Roosevelt Corollary of December 1904 stated that the United States would intervene as a last resort to ensure that other nations in the Western Hemisphere fulfilled their obligations to international creditors, and did not violate the rights of the United States or invite "foreign aggression to the detriment of the entire body of American nations." As the corollary worked out in practice, the United States increasingly used military force "to restore internal stability to nations in the region," which in deeds meant making sure only regimes favourable to the United States would be permitted. Roosevelt declared that the United States might "exercise international police power in 'flagrant cases of such wrongdoing or impotence!" Over the long-term the corollary served as justification for U.S. intervention in Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic.
Roosevelt's corollary to the Monroe doctrine became known worldwide as the "big stick" policy which asserted U.S. domination when such dominance was considered the "moral imperative." On this basis, the U.S. promoted gunboat diplomacy worldwide in order to maintain "open markets." Roosevelt said: "Chronic wrongdoing, or an impotence which results in a general loosening of the ties of civilized society, may in America, as elsewhere, ultimately require intervention by some civilized nation, and in the Western Hemisphere the adherence of the United States to the Monroe Doctrine may force the United States, however reluctantly, in flagrant cases of such wrongdoing or impotence, to the exercise of an international police power."
Following the defeat of Spain in the Spanish-American War of 1898, the United States acquired overseas colonies in the Caribbean and the Pacific. In its new status as an imperial power, the United States pursued a series of policies designed to protect annexed U.S. territories and aggressively expand its international commercial interests. These policies included the promotion of the "Open Door" policy in China and the attachment of the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine that formally announced the intention to use military force to defend the Western Hemisphere against European incursions. At the same time, Roosevelt oversaw the construction of the Panama Canal, which would have profound economic implications for American trade, and engaged in great power diplomacy in the wake of the Russo-Japanese War. In just over a decade, the United States had redefined its national and international interests to include a large overseas military presence, overseas possessions, and direct engagement in setting priorities in international affairs.
Henry Stimson, Secretary of State (1929-1933) under Herbert Hoover put forward a doctrine at the time of the Japanese invasion of China and the establishment of the puppet government in Manchuria. Along with references to territorial integrity and national sovereignty, the Stimson Doctrine stressed the U.S. Open Door policy. The Truman Doctrine was put forward in 1947 with the granting of military aid to Turkey and Greece. The doctrine argued for "support[ing] free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures." The doctrine was aimed at the destruction of the anti-fascist unity that emerged in the world through the resistance struggles in World War II. It was instrumental in organizing a worldwide front on the basis of anti-communism and was used in support of the U.S. policy of containment. In 1957, President Eisenhower advanced a new doctrine proclaiming that the U.S. would intervene in the Middle East if a government "requested aid'" against communism.
The Monroe Doctrine and the Roosevelt Corollary were then invoked by Eisenhower's Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, numerous times for purposes of aggression. For example, Dulles used the doctrine in 1954 to rationalize the overthrow of the government of Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala and the funding and arming of anti-communist forces. John F. Kennedy invoked the Monroe Doctrine in relation to Cuba in 1962, claiming, "The Monroe Doctrine means what it has meant since President Monroe and John Quincy Adams enunciated it, and that is that we would oppose a foreign power extending its power to the Western Hemisphere, and that is why we oppose what is happening in Cuba today. That is why we have cut off our trade. That is why we worked in the Organization of American States and in other ways to isolate the Communist menace in Cuba. That is why we will continue to give a good deal of our effort and attention to it."
U.S. presidential doctrines combine so-called ideals in the form of national interest and U.S. strategic aims with the military and political establishment's response to international standards, as recognized by the big powers. Presidential doctrines are the official government policy statements dealing with foreign affairs and military strategy. The doctrines are sources of the war aims of the political and military establishment. They do not pass through the Congress for approval. In fact, as pronouncements of the President, they promote the presidency, in the words of the U.S. Supreme Court, as the "sole organ of American foreign affairs." As the result of reason of state, they are opposed to the public interest but nonetheless said to be the public expression of what is termed national interest or national security.
This article was published in
Volume 53
Number 11 - November 2023
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2023/Articles/M5301114.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca