In Defence of the Monroe Doctrine
The Blip Report for Wednesday, September 4th 2024
I’ve been reading some stories by some writers in the United States and in China that attack the idea of the Monroe Doctrine, and write that this is responsible for the current American colonialist policies. But the Monroe Doctrine is actually an anti-colonialist policy, and if we wanted to end the current American colonialist policies, we should urge them instead to return to the ideas of the Monroe Doctrine.
What we are actually seeing in the United States today, is a battle between the colonialist (Theodore) Roosevelt’s Corollary policy and the anti-colonialist (Franklin) Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor policy.
Let’s hope that the next president of the United States, will instead return to the anti-colonialist policies of John Kennedy, and like Kennedy, read the poems of Robert Frost.
[the following is an excerpt from my Rising Tide Foundation presentation: ‘Mending Wall’ – Robert Frost and the Good Neighbor Poetry]
Robert Frost (1910)
This historical fight over this idea of being a good neighbor is part of the fundamental fight for independence in American history, and a part of the fight to find the truth.
Let’s read an excerpt from President James Monroe’s State of the Union Address to Congress, December 1823:
“… the occasion has been judged proper for asserting, as a principle in which the rights and interests of the United States are involved, that the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers ... that 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.”
The Monroe Doctrine, as developed by John Quincy Adams, was in response to the new republics of South America declaring their independence from Spain. To deny them recognition would be to reject the republican principle that had established the United States. But America also had to follow President George Washington’s policy of neutrality, regarding the internal affairs of European countries.
The United States would continue to be “tranquil but deeply attentive spectators” of any war between these new republics of southern America and Spain, that means non-interference. But any attempts by other European powers to seize or to control these former Spanish colonies would be viewed as being ‘unfriendly’ to the United States. This was a principle of the Non-Colonization of the Americas. It was kind of like building a non-colonization wall – between Europe and the American continents.
But the United States wasn’t strong enough to enforce this principle, and they weren’t strong enough to mend this non-colonization wall, until after the Civil War. When Mexico suspended the payment of its foreign debts, a French invasion installed Maximilian Hapsburg as the new Emperor of Mexico, but the United States intervened to help force the French to leave, that allowed the Mexicans to remove the monarchy and to restore their republic.
But the Monroe Doctrine’s wall of neutrality and non-interference changed with the Anglo-American alliance of President Theodore Roosevelt and what came to be called the Roosevelt Corollary.
Let’s read an excerpt from Teddy Roosevelt’s State of the Union Address, December 1904:
“… 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.”
The Monroe Doctrine forbade European colonization in the Americas, but did it forbid American colonization? This perversion of the Monroe Doctrine became the excuse to militarily intervene into other American countries if they were unable or unwilling to pay their international debts. Under Teddy Roosevelt, the United States built a neo-colonial wall around the Americas so that they could become the policeman of the countries inside the wall.
With the Good Neighbor policy of President Franklin Roosevelt, the United States returned once again to that principle of neutrality and non-interference in the internal affairs of another country.
Let’s read an excerpt from FRD’s March 1933 Inaugural Address:
“In the field of world policy, I would dedicate this nation to the policy of the good neighbor – the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others – the neighbor who respects his obligations and respects the sanctity of his agreements in and with a world of neighbors.”
This was a policy that FDR wanted to use as the basis for the United Nations and as the basis for a New Deal for the rest of the world. But FDR’s non-colonial policy was reversed in 1999, when the United States adopted the Blair Doctrine, and returned to an expanded version of the Teddy Roosevelt Corollary, that is called the Responsibility to Protect, the R2P corollary – that provides an excuse for that re-formed Anglo-American alliance of Teddy Roosevelt, to militarily intervene in the internal affairs of another country, anywhere in the world!
Let’s now read an excerpt from the Riyadh agreement between the GCC and the People's Republic of China:
(in this article #10, it was specifically about Iran, which is very important, but it could apply to any country)
“10. The two sides stressed the need for relations between the GCC states and Iran to be based on following the principle of good neighbourliness and non-interference in internal affairs, respect for the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of states, and resolving disputes by peaceful means, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and international law, and not resorting to the use of force or threatening to use it, and maintaining regional and international security and stability.”
In contrast to that R2P corollary, we see today an emerging multi-polar world of a new good neighbor movement. President Xi recently travelled to Saudi Arabia and as a result of his meetings with the Gulf Cooperation Council, the People’s Republic of China and all of the Persian Gulf monarchies agreed on how they will mend their walls, or actually on how they will build bridges with other countries. And it’s based on the idea of being good neighbors.
Now, where did that come from, I wonder. Maybe the elves put it in there. I don’t know but it is a sign of something.
How could anyone find any fault with anything in that statement. If this is what China’s Belt and Road Initiative, the new silk road, is based upon, why wouldn’t any government in the world want to join and want to welcome it, if it’s all about mending walls and being good neighbors!
So, imagine for a minute, that President Xi of China comes to Washington D.C. and he knocks on the front door of the White House but no one answers (the porch lights are on but no one’s home, you know what I mean). And so President Xi leaves a note in the mailbox. Eventually someone finds it and they wonder ‘hey, who put this note in here, hmmm, maybe the elves did’. Anyway, they give it to the President and the President reads the note, and the note says ‘Good morning neighbor! I saw that there’s some holes in that wall in our neighborhood, and I think we should mend it.’ And with the note is a copy of this good neighbor policy.
It would be so easy for the President of the United States to simply say ‘well now, I think I’ve seen this before, this looks like that policy of President Franklin Roosevelt, his Good Neighbor Policy! Ok, let’s be good neighbors, and let’s mend our wall.’ So the question is, are we building walls, like this stupid Green New Wall, simply to stop the New Silk Road, or are we going to use the New Silk Road as something for mending walls?
Nicely done! Yes, let's return to the Monroe Doctrine and Franklin Roosevelt's Good Neighbour Policy.