United States non-interventionism
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Non-interventionism, the diplomatic policy whereby a nation seeks to avoid alliances with other nations, has had a long history in the United States.
Early background
Thomas Paine is generally credited with instilling the first non-interventionist ideas into the American body politic; his work Common Sense contains many arguments in favor of avoiding alliances. These ideas introduced by Paine took such a firm foothold that the Continental Congress struggled against forming an alliance with France and only agreed to do so when it was apparent that the American Revolutionary War could be won in no other manner.George Washington's farewell address is often cited as laying the foundation for a tradition of American non-interventionism:
The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have none, or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves, by artificial ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities.
President Thomas Jefferson extended Washington's ideas in his March 4, 1801 inaugural address: "peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none." Jefferson's phrase "entangling alliances" is, incidentally, sometimes mis-attributed to Washington.[link]
In 1823, President James Monroe articulated what would come to be known as the Monroe Doctrine, which some have interpreted as non-interventionist in intent: "In the wars of the European powers, in matters relating to themselves, we have never taken part, nor does it comport with our policy, so to do. It is only when our rights are invaded, or seriously menaced that we resent injuries, or make preparations for our defense."
The United States' policy of non-intervention was maintained throughout most of the 19th century. The first significant foreign intervention by the US was the Spanish-American War, which saw the US occupy and control the Philippines. Since this was the first take-over of non-contiguous territory where people speak a different language, this is generally considered the first colonial act of the US.
United States President Woodrow Wilson, after winning the election with the slogan, "he kept us out of war," promptly intervened in World War I. Yet non-interventionist sentiment remained - the US Congress refused to endorse the Treaty of Versailles or the League of Nations.
The time between the World Wars saw a resurgence in non-interventionism in the United States. After the war broke out in Europe on September 1, 1939, such Americans as Charles Lindbergh, Gerald P. Nye and Rush D. Holt prominently advocated U.S. neutrality. Groups like the America First Committee tapped into the overwhelming desire of the American people to remain out of this second European war, attracting hundreds of thousands into its ranks. The committee came under increasing attacks by newspaper editors of the day, many of whom supported stronger intervention in the European war.
U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's efforts to aid countries against Nazi Germany's and Imperial Japan's aggression through economic aid and embargoes undermined this non-interventionism. Some, like author Robert Stinnett in his book, Day Of Deceit: The Truth About FDR and Pearl Harbor, argue that Roosevelt succeeded in baiting the Japanese into attacking Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Almost immediately after the attack, the American peace movement quickly lost support and evaporated.
After World War II
The interventionist policies did not evaporate with Allied victory in World War II. The Cold War and decline of the non-interventionist Old Right, replaced by the ardently anti-communist New Right of William Buckley, made interventionism the US foreign policy for the rest of the century.Today, non-interventionists argue that the United States is far removed from its earlier history of non-intervention.
They cite recent presidents of both political parties who have often used intervention as a tactic of foreign policy, including:
- President Ronald Reagan's 1983 intervention in Grenada
- President George Herbert Walker Bush's 1989 intervention in Panama to arrest General Manuel Noriega
- President George Herbert Walker Bush's 1989 intervention in Kuwait
- President George Herbert Walker Bush's 1992 intervention in Somalia, ostensibly for humanitarian reasons (continued under President Bill Clinton.)
- President Bill Clinton's 1995 intervention in Bosnia, ostensibly to prevent ethnic cleansing and his 1999 intervention in Kosovo and attacks on Serbia on behalf of the Muslim Albanian-led Kosovo Liberation Army
- President Bill Clinton's and president George W. Bush's embargo of Iraq
- President George W. Bush's 2001 intervention in Afghanistan against the Taliban following the September 11 Attacks.
- President George W. Bush's 2003 invasion of Iraq to depose Saddam Hussein.
Some assert that through America's decades of membership in the United Nations, multi-lateral interventionism has become the dominant policy of the United States government, though unilateral interventionism was articulated as the preferred policy of the George W. Bush administration for the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.
A number of individuals in the U.S. are active in promoting a return to a non-interventionist foreign policy. These include progressives such as Ralph Nader, paleo-conservatives such as Pat Buchanan, and libertarians such as Ron Paul.
Notes
- Note 1: Albert K. Weinberg, in his 1935 study of Manifest Destiny, wrote that "the principle of independent political action (now known under the misnomer of non-interventionism) ... was given its classic formulation by Washington" (p. 453). John Lewis Gaddis also calls non-interventionism a misnomer, and writes that Washington's Farewell Address and the Monroe Doctrine were actually part of the American diplomatic tradition of unilateralism (p. 24).
References
- Gaddis, John Lewis. Surprise, Security, and the American Experience. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2004.
- Weinberg, Albert K. Manifest Destiny: A Study of Nationalist Expansionism in American History. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1935.
- Doenecke, Justus D. "The Literature of non-interventionism, 1972-1983: A Bibliographical Guide," The Journal of Libertarian Studies, Vol. VII, No. 1 (Spring 1983) http://www.mises.org/journals/jls/7_1/7_1_10.pdf
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