THE MONROE DOCTRINE

The Monroe Doctrine is one of the most famous landmarks of American history for several reasons, one of which is the fact that it did not originate with President Monroe, nor did it end with him, becoming one of the mainstays of American foreign policy, supposedly up to the present day. Its essence is plain, and one can say simple, as shown by the following excerpt from Monroe’s historic Message to Congress:

“We should consider any attempt [by the European Powers] to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies or dependencies of any European Power we have not interfered, and shall not interfere. But with the governments who have declared their independence, and maintained it… we could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling, in any other manner, their destiny, by any European Power, in any other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition towards the United States.” (Monroe’s Message to Congress, December 2, 1823.)

Historians tell us with factual authority that Monroe’s Message was diligently drafted by none other than the next sixth President of the United States, then Secretary of State John Quincy Adams. However, with all due respect to the latter, there are two good reasons for President Monroe to get the recognition for the doctrine which bears his name. Number one is that he was the one who voiced it, and made it an official principle of American foreign policy. And number two is that this principle in fact did not originate either with Monroe or with John Quincy Adams. It goes back to the Founding Fathers as a group, who all advocated a resolute disengagement from the affairs of Europe, leaving ‘America to the Americans.’ It was already implicit in the 1793 Proclamation of Neutrality by President George Washington, and palpably unequivocal in his 1796 Farewell Address. Its bottom line is lucidly expressed by Thomas Jefferson in the following quote from his letter, written in 1808, fifteen years before President Monroe’s Message to Congress:

“…We consider the interests of Cuba, Mexico, and ours as the same, and that the object of both must be to exclude all European influence from this hemisphere.” (Letter to William Charles Cole Claiborne, October 1808.)

There are obviously numerous adequate representations of the essence of the Monroe Doctrine, but here is the short entry from my good reference friend, the Webster’s Dictionary.---

“Monroe Doctrine.--- The doctrine essentially stated by President Monroe in his December 1823 Message to Congress that the United States would regard as an unfriendly act any attempt by a European nation to interfere in the affairs of the American countries or increase its possessions on the American continents.”

It is important to realize that the Monroe Doctrine is not a particular document soon to celebrate the 189^th anniversary of its historical occurrence, but an essential expression of a foreign policy philosophy, and thus timeless. The world has indeed changed a lot in the last two centuries, and an unmistakable globalization of foreign policy has taken place. This is not to suggest that in the new age of borderless communications the classic definition of national borders has somehow become obsolete. Geographical proximity of nations has not changed a bit, and although we can instantly communicate with a person sitting ten thousand miles away from us, there is a clear difference between that person and our next door neighbor, which is what the Monroe Doctrine is really about. While our back yard is an area of vital interest to us, no place on the other side of the earth can be of a similar vital interest to us, although it must be of vital interest to those who live out there.

No nation in the world is powerful enough to project her power to every distant point of the globe without a detriment to her ability to control events in her immediate proximity. Moreover, having thus overextended herself, she may easily come in conflict with the legitimate denizens of those faraway places. It is no secret that in recent times the United States has been embroiled in unnecessary conflicts away from home, making no friends or profit in the process, while her prestige and physical presence in the strategically indispensable Americas has steadily reached the lowest historical point since James Monroe was President of the United States… One cannot possibly become a “Master of the Universe” having forfeited ground at home. No matter how many troops America keeps overseas, those troops cannot provide security for her immediate physical borders, nor create artificial zones of vital national interest where such an interest has no natural soil to be planted in.