The Irony of Manifest Destiny

William Pfaff’s The Irony of Manifest Destiny: The Tragedy of America’s Foreign Policy is a sober reflection of the American current state of foreign and military policy. William highlights the reality of today that is not understood in ordinary political commentary. American foreign policy, society and economy are have all dominated serial or permanent wars against American enemies assumptions, which Washington identified as enemies as well as Western civilization and democracy. The national myth explains the history and the role of a nation. During the 1^st century, national election and mission belief was integral in the identity of America and half of the state history. Its effect was to emphasize the separateness of American from Europe from which almost its entire people had come, and validating a national policy that separated American from European affairs which were considered as ideologically contaminating or potentially compromising and politically turbulent.

The national myth was turned into an international action philosophy by Woodrow Wilson. The United States was convinced on providing a solution to Europe by being the saviour the world was awaiting for through the state’s virtues. The Europe civilization confidence was destroyed by the First World War futility and carnage. This led Europe to welcoming the Wilson’s fourteen plan for peace and the American intervention to the war. In twentieth century, fundamental change took place with Wilson’s help about world affairs according to American thinking.

 From French revolution period, the new United States had been spared from almost all European state relations conflicts. After the Vienna congress, which settled the Napoleonic legacy, the conflicts to the Americans was a matter of rivalries and jealousies of the Europe complicated politics that Wilson and others condemned it to be the cause of war. From the Barbary pirates’ time until the United States conversion to the 1898 idealistic imperialism, the international affairs had not perpetuated USA.  Besides confronting the aboriginal people resistance, the new nation citizens fought losing the second war with Britain during Canada expansion efforts in 1812. After the first Seminole in 1819, they settled with Spaniards in Florida.

After 1823, the British government quietly supported the Monroe doctrine opposing any European colonization in America. USA did not face any real threats from overseas thus throwing its energies in its manifest destiny original conception of transcontinental territorial expansion. The civil war was the last experience of the republic where they suffered attacks on civilian society and many casualties. The exemplified General Ulysses S. Grant’s strategy by William Tecumseh Sherman’s ‘‘March through Georgia’’ destroying the confederacy’s civilian Agrarian economy with its massive industrial supremacy. This was to set to the American military practice a precedent during the Korean and second word war. 

During the First World War, the American intervention was a lasting consequence event because of Woodrow Wilson. He believed that the world will turn to America for moral inspirations lying on freedom basis; all will know that USA puts human rights above other rights. His interpretation for world war was ideological; world war would be the war to end war by giving birth to permanent peace. With Woodrow, the US Manifest Destiny ceased to be continental expansion and national progress and power and reimagined as divinely ordained humanity mission as the nation’s subsequent war has been interpreted which became essential to American national myth.

In November 1918, an armistice agreement has reached between Germany and American by Wilson Woodrow help. He offered a post-war security plan which would on new international institutions that were based on Americans’ values and conceptions ending the destructive pattern of great power rivalry. He proposed that a league of nations be created that later became American dominated world government. Sovereign power world parliament over existing nations was an unrealizable ambition. Even if the senate of America accepted a commitment to go on war through the vote of League of Nations, neither of the two main American allies, the French and the British Empire, could have accepted the nation league with Wilson’s proposed powers. 

Wilson assumed that nationalism destructive role of Europe would be ended by universal national self-determination.  He made these views ignoring the actual ethnic, historical, religious and territorial complexities of the nation and its communities which were part of defeated Austro Hungarian and Ottoman empires with an American determination not to bound by the past or confused by reality. Wilson refused the Congress of Vienna history studied in fear of it offering lessons to the peacemakers in 1919. He 1912, he talked to the  journalists saying that God chose United States to lead and show the way to the world’s nations on how to walk in liberty. Practically, the efforts of self-determination principle left national claims that were controversial and unsatisfied with many ethnic nationals on the new frontiers wrong side agitating to recover ‘’lost territories’’.

The Hungarians who found themselves in the Sudeten German, Romania and the Croats in the new Yugoslavia spent the following years with authority of artificial new states resentment which contributed to the ethnic proto-fascists and hatred movements which invited Nazi. By the end of 1945 world war, isolationism spirit remained influential in American conservative circles, a rush to sympathy to the Russian people with a renew longing of sense allied solidarity which prevailed during the war. In 1946 and 1948 American election, foreign policy was still an issue. In 1949, the American ratification of NATO treaty was by Taft declaring that unforeseeable commitments were involved. Despite him a Wilsonian, he nonetheless declared his international law support which defined the obligations and duties of nations, joint armed forces and international courts in enforcing the law and court’s decision.

Despite all, he was looking for ways to realize the world parliament global Utopian vision that had been Franklin Roosevelt’s and Wilson’s which by then had become isolationist republican instinct. This was an established belief of about the future world organisation so as to achieve the Tennyson prophesy …. ‘‘the war-drum throbbed no longer and the battle flags were furled / in the parliament of man and the federation of the world.’’ The 1948 coup d’état in Czechoslovakia Communist , outbreak of Korean war and Berlin Blockade led to American isolationism termination, which launched the Cold War. This caused the United State in adopting a policy proposed by George F. Kenman state department officer. The policy intention was to force Kremlin to circumspection and moderation than observed in the previous years. This promoted tendencies which were to find their outlet in either the gradual mellowing or break up of Soviet power.

In 1950, Containment increasing Militarization during the Eisenhower administration that reflected the belligerent group of policymakers’ influence that was associated with militant protest Layman John Foster Dulles and international lawyers. Historian John Lucas wrote that Dulles, an international lawyer and Presbyterian elder brought the distressingly puritanical and pharisaic inclination to see a national personification in the world struggles of good versus evil, which by mistake elevated political ideology of anti-communism in a superior moral principle. In 1952 presidential campaign, a rollback of communist power was called by Dulles in central Europe which unhappily proved mendacious and hypocritical electoral national and rhetoric propaganda. This was responsible for Baltic States’ death of people who took these American propositions seriously and went to their state’s policy to fight the Soviet occupation troops mistakenly believing of support from the West. The Hungarian rebellion in 1956 against their communist government made a similar mistake.

Despite the East Germany revolting 1952, the 1956 Hungarian uprising, and the preceding polish leadership mutiny, nothing was done by Washington in exploiting these opportunities to improve the Central European people conditions. At this Hungarian revolt time, when the risk of general precluded the Western military interventions, Washington refused consideration of such political alternatives in attempts of negotiating a neutralized and disarmed Hungary. The Czechoslovakian events in 1968 Prague spring, it offered a new diplomatic opportunity which was still ignored. The central European disengagement notion was supported by Winston Churchill before he retired in 1955, by Field Marshall Montgomery and other West Europe and British figures by Kennan and later in the institute by advanced studies In Princeton. This was rejected by Washington which had agreed on the view that Cold War was to be globally fought and any compromise would undermine the victory prospect in what James Burnham described in his 1947 book as the ‘‘struggle for the world’’.

During late 1950s, Edmund Stillman and William Pfaff (colleagues) circulated an argument that later became a book which concluded that the obsession of American with Soviet Communist power that turned to be an Americanised Marxist historicism and ideological mesianism version. The said that Washington had fallen from ideological politics of the thirties and the second war moral fervour influence. They assumed that Americans and the soviet Russia were struggling for the world’s soul. The argued that cold war system would pass due to the backward state of Russia compared to japan and Western Europe which were dynamic. According to them, Europe was not dead and there was no expectation for its death in either eastern or western half to remain forever in tutelage of Russia and America. They floridly declared that the timeless civilisation and great introspective of asia were awakening and would seek influence and power. This would contribute to the power pluralism in international relations. 

This was against the thinking of the moment which held that Warsaw Pact countries and Soviet Union that it controlled were steadily becoming more powerful leaving the democracies in deadly peril. In the Soviet revolution early years the national element hardly figured; it was a dream for universal messianic that counted for most citizens. Lenin looked West in the belief that if proletarian revolution were not to break in France England and Germany the October revolution would fail. It was a mistake for United States to interpret Asian nationalism with its cold war outlook rigid limits as it was doing in Indonesia where it convinced itself that china and Russia controlled Vietnamese national communist movement. This was a great threat to American global interest including military interests. In early 1960s, it was a time for multi-polarity of ambition and power development where United States could flourish but the long run the Soviet Union could not.

Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam were the first modern instances of what is now called an inveterate American policy in internal affairs of direct military interventions of small non-western countries that are mistakenly believed to be global menace victims. This is aimed to the United States that is powerful to render these countries on forging their own destinies. The global enemy in such cases identified in Washington has proven to be nationalism in the Marxism expedient guise or instances of xenophobic and radical Islamic religious radicalism. As a result, the American interventions failed to supress the supposed enemy, and the US assumed the aggressive foreign threat role to the nation’s independence which was an American’s attention policy. For incomprehensible reasons, the fact has never been understood in Washington from Lyndon Johnson administration time to the current of Obama administration.

The Dulles era of moralistic and rigid foreign policy ideology, that was followed by Russian American struggle and Vietnam crisis metastasized which reappeared in a dozen fronts. What had been a conflict of two armed rival political system and nuclear armed state which are seen as moral struggle and global ideological epic dimensions. The United States needed to do a military and political battle wherever the Marxist thinking symptoms were discerned from the Laos paddies to the Central American jungles. The national myth of saviour notion was connected by Dulles with his own bipolar world struggle fixed notion which was a reflection of his religious convictions this outlook was transformed to a communism view, especially the Asian communism. They mobilized peasants instead of industrial workers as an insatiable, indefatigably resourceful international threat, ubiquitous, acting under the command of centralized communist. 

During the 1962 Saigon visit from Pfaff, he made a notion of US embassy political people unimaginative, rigid, obsessed with Asia take overs of communist timetable. At that time, china was considered as a Russian subordinate supporting the Vietnamese communist insurrection against colonial French power after the Second World War. The Marxist proposition, on the communist revolution was developed in Asia societies was taken by American Vietnam policy.it seriously held that the war had to be won so as to block all Asians from becoming communists. This is evidenced by one, American paying no attention to the revolt of anti-French that was in Algeria in 1950s. Evidence is also seen when the united states bother the France nationalist revolt in a distant Asian colony.

The Dulles bipolar struggle vision was in 1950s promoted to global dimensions that continued to rule the thinking of American policy until the collapse of communism. In 2001, the influence was still great leading George W. Bush to construct his global terror war which was at the time seen as cold war parody. He took this even though the new version enemy of global struggle was an organisation of thousands of Muslim mujahedeen and their sympathisers who replaced the enemy in administration propaganda and imagination. This was a soviet union of 150million people in possession of the 2^nd largest nuclear system on the planet, imposing a global and economy clients and allies. Its consequence was fictions substitutions in important government deliberation as it has been repeated attested by recent experience.

Following the 9/11 attacks, George Bush declaration on global war against terror produced a mass alarm in America.  The Americans were goaded with irrational and morbid fear into the national mobilisation against terror and were characterized by duct-taped-sealed apartments with survival supplies in Manhattan Washington. The war against terror by Bush was a product of political confusion and ignorance and probable mendacity in their claim that Iraq despot Saddam Hussein which was responsible for 2001 New York and Washington attack. The popular and official conception of Americas’ enemy was extended to political extremism, radicalism and misrule of many in non-western world.  All this presumed to nourishment hatred toward the US because of what the president said, ‘‘such people hate our freedom.

The neoconservative ambition on creation of permanent American alliance in dominating Middle East with Israel turned in to informal reality but not a success. The New American Century and Defense of the Realm initiatives in these two countries rested on assertion to the Arabs that they only understand force. In contrary, it turned that the Israelites and the Americans understood force and when and while their losses were ignored by the Arabs, the Israelites faced political military defeat without interventions from Washington. The Hizbollah attacks compelled Israel in the withdrawal from a security zone of twenty two years occupation in Sothern Lebanon.

The common western assumption on history is that it’s known to move toward intelligible conclusion which is derived from western religious eschatology belief. The religion enlighten rejection resulted in efforts of discovering autonomous secular patterns and ethical rules in history leading towards historical theories. This is a belief in history speculative systems with no objective evidence which was said by philosopher Karl Popper, offers a foundation towards dangerous political movements and ideologies built. In the case of the common theory to conservatives and liberal, on democracy universal progress, the presumption made is that democracy self-evident superiority makes it a natural end point of history. 

American foreign policy community large part has committed itself to the unprovable and unproven democracy theory which a strong force in history and can rule over all others. Of late, many have discovered that democracy is not a default society condition but is produced by certain social and political circumstances by historical experience derived values and philosophical argument and reasoning. Democracy is not created by free election but by the society willingness to accept majority rule, accept non-lethal settlement and defend minority rights of political differences. Finally, ultimate democratic ideology ordinarily makes the argument that it is good to promote democracy as they are innately peaceful. Since the Second World War, foreign policy problem have been politically solved through military interventions. When George Bush administration took office, one of its conviction was that America military forces could not conduct the nation –building and that the American all-volunteer army was a war fighting force. The American armed forces had three principle responsibilities; confrontation of rising military power of other states, dealing with rogue-quest threats of nuclear weapons and conducting global struggle against violent ideology extremist. 

The American military forces are required to meet certain requirements by National Defence Strategy Statement. They should develop long term innovative approaches of dealing with of urgent al Qaeda challenges like violation of boarders. The inability of many states to police themselves should be addressed. They should counter Iran pursuit of nuclear technology and be able to deal with ability of rogue states like North Korea and Iran that may threaten international border, disrupt fledgling democracies and sponsor terrorism. Forming local partnership and conceiving creative approaches that deny extremities opportunities in gaining footholds in under governed, ungoverned and misgoverned contested area that affect local and regional stability. 

There should be plans meeting possible challenges from better power states that may actively seek to counter United States domains of traditional warfare. Irregular warfare mastery must be achieved in countering prospective adversaries’ measures especially in non-state actors. While pursuing peacetime engagement in foreseeable future between defence establishments, effect of china international security and hedge against china military growing modernization. The American foreign policy objective has an ending tyranny in the world and is well described by Wilsonian theme as the ‘reductio ad absurdum’ and will be followed by a mystery. 

References

Pfaff, W. (2010). The irony of manifest destiny. New York: Walker & Co