The American Myth and Imperialism
The American Myth and Imperialism
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In his "First Inaugural Address" (1801) Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) offered a "unity-building speech" (Jefferson 203) and in his "Farewell Address" (1796) George Washington (1732-1797) delivered an address which was meant "to build unity" even as he sought to return to private life (Washington 187). These two early speeches by famous Americans center upon the country's need to define itself in terms of its boundaries. According to their vision, America could only acquire and maintain status if it decided to unify its diverse colonies and continue expanding. In The American Styles of Foreign Policy Robert Dallek asserts that these founding principles of America destined it to be imperialist. Dallek brilliantly argues that the "impulse to fight, the war itself, and colonial expansion" surfaced as three parts of a "short-lived answer to domestic difficulties" (Dallek 30). He also observes that the imperial outburst of 1898-99 surfaced as "more the product of troubles at home than of oppor-tunities abroad" (Dallek 4). Crucial to Dallek's argument is the contention that this imperial outburst of 1898-99 helped to trigger a series of modern episodes in which "foreign affairs had greater symbolic" significance than "substantive importance" (Dallek 4-5). In seeking to prove itself as a supreme nation America pronounced a policy of Manifest Destiny where it willed itself to expand from shore to shore. In developing this policy of Social Dar
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them powerful effect.
Roosevelt's "Four Freedoms" speech stands as one of America's most memorable. Propaganda in order to succeed must set an extreme tone. Here Roosevelt indicates that Americans are endangered by the current world war even if it is being fought abroad. In order to get Americans to adopt this belief, Roosevelt suggests that freedom itself is at stake. He is able to suggest the greatest potential doom by implication (Hofstadter 387). Exaggeration of the immediate danger to the US is offered so that Americans will be roused from any levels of apathy.
When Roosevelt suggests that the US may be subject to inside infiltration through "secret agents and their dupes", he is playing upon the American potential for extreme paranoia (Hofstadter 388). He distorts the facts a bit indicating that the US is not inviolable in the midst of this corruption. In this way, Roosevelt wished to lessen the distance between the atrocities abroad and what was going on at home. He omits discussion of how long such an infiltration might take to pose real threat.
When Roosevelt indicates that US assistance to European powers during this war cannot be considered an "act of war" he is edging quite close to falsehood (Hofsta
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Approximate Word count = 3271
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page)
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