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| JAMES MONROE |
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| HOHN QUINCY ADAMS |
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| THOMAS JEFFERSON |
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ANDREW JACKSON JAMES K. POLK |
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| WILLIAM MCKINLEY |
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| THEODORE ROOSEVELT |
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JOHN F. KENNEDY RONALD REAGAN |
The 2013 Wisconsin gun deer season ended yesterday. I shall without further comment consign it to "the dustbin of history," as they used to say.
Today marks the 190th anniversary of President James Monroe's declaration of the doctrine that bears his name, and which was ultimately responsible for the elimination of European colonialism and the furtherance of democracy in the Americas. It has been used to great effect and benefit to our neighbors and our own nation over the course of almost two hundred years, invoked by many truly great United States presidents and their Secretaries of State.
The era of that cornerstone of American diplomacy has now been declared "over" by President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerrey, two political figures of rather dubious reputation, whom I would submit have neither the character, the perspective nor the moral right to overturn that major corollary of American foreign policy.
The Monroe Doctrine was born out of fear that newly emergent, independent former Spanish and Portuguese colonies would be reconquered by their masters after the defeat of Napoleon. It was postulated by President Monroe and Secretary of State John Quincy Adams that these largely democratic new nations represented a break with European history and influence, much as did the United States, and as such they were no longer to be considered within the sphere of influence of their former masters. Thomas Jefferson, author of the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark expedition, was influential in its inception, and Andrew Jackson, who forced the British from New Orleans and the Spanish from Florida, could be considered its godfather. It proclaimed that attempts by European nations to recolonize or interfere with these free sates would henceforth be considered acts of aggression not only against them, but against the United States itself.
The threats from European nations were constant and real throughout much of the Nineteenth Century, such as when Napoleon III conquered Mexico and set up the puppet government of the Emperor Maximilian. President James K. Polk invoked the Monroe Doctrine in the defense of the new Repubic of Texas and went on to utilize it in the authorship of the concept of Manifest Destiny and westward expansion. The Monroe Doctrine was important during the administration of President William McKinley and the Cuban war for independence from Spain, which culminated in the Spanish American War of 1898. President Theodore Roosevelt waved the big stick of the Monroe Doctrine around to great effect, often upsetting not only European powers but the sister republics of the Americas as well.
In the Twentieth Century the Communist Soviet Union, with its ally Castro's Cuba attempted to subvert and subjugate South American democracies, and the Monroe Doctrine was cited by President John F. Kennedy as precedent for keeping the foreign doctrine of Communism as well as Russian missiles out of the Western Hemisphere (we all watched fearfully during the Cuban Missile Crisis as the Russian freighter carrying long range missiles was stopped on the high seas, and cheered as it turned back). President Ronald Reagan invoked the Monroe Doctrine when freeing the Caribbean island nation of Grenada from communist thugs.
The Monroe Doctrine has not always been an instrument of sweetness and light, but it has kept the Americas free from foreign physical and political domination. And there are ongoing challenges to the Americas from foreign powers and philosophies today as well. It is easy to foresee a serious threat from Iran in the form of influence over and domination of a rogue state such as Venezuela and arming it with nuclear missiles; or the use of economic and even military force by China to obtain markets or collect debts from small South and Central American states. A resurgent Russia may also in the future try to regain a foothold in the Americas if we become weak enough, perhaps threatening Alaska, the Aleutians, or the west coast of Canada or Mexico, all regions that it once considered to be within the reach of its empire.
The Monroe Doctrine has served American interests and freedom well for almost two centuries. It has been a powerful precedent for diplomatic and military action in the face of foreign aggression. Consider the truly great Americans who invoked it, and consider the inept "leaders from behind" who have touted its demise. To declare the Monroe Doctrine dead is tantamount to treason.
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