American motive for military engagement

President William McKinley, Address to a joint-session of Congress to request a declaration of war upon Spain. (11 April, 1898)

https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/april-11-1898-message-regarding-cuban-civil-war (direct link to full text of speech, no complete digital text able to be uploaded)

The First Source of the exhibition comes from President William McKinley’s 1898 address to Congress. The purpose of this source was for President McKinley to request a declaration of war from Congress, against  Spain. McKinley gave this speech in light of reports of the atrocities taking place against the Cuban people, which were being inflicted by the Spanish. Because of these reports, US public opinion of Spain was quite unfavorable, and eventually became hostile in lieu of the explosion of a US battleship in Havana Harbor. US entry into what became known as the Spanish American War came largely as a result of US public opinion, the people wanted to go to war to defend Cuba’s subjugation from the Spanish. This is pertinent to the exhibition’s theme because in the case of the Spanish American War, the US people wanted to go to war, as opposed to what the public opinion of later generations said of military conflict. President McKinley cites as motive for intervening the suffering trade and economic failure that the situation in Cuba has brought America. But more importantly, McKinley uses the term “duty”, in that it is the duty of the US to bring a speedy end to the subjugation of the Cuban people, “in the spirit of friendship”, so he says. It should be known that McKinley, being the last president to have served in the Civil War, was strongly opposed to the US engaging in military conflict. Nevertheless, the United States entered a war that would set the precedent for the role it would play as a global military entity for generations to come. In addition the war led to the ratification of the Platt Amendment, uplifting the US to a military superpower as well as an industrial superpower. This source was accessed through the University of Virginia’s “Miller Center” archive which contains nearly every Presidential Address in American History.

Congressional Declaration of War upon the German Empire, passed by the 65th United States Congress. (6 April, 1917)

The United States’ declaration of war upon the German Empire came four days following the its request by President Woodrow Wilson. Wilson, up until this point in the war, had preached America’s “neutrality,” in regard to engaging in international conflict. In his address to a joint session of Congress just four days prior to the declaration, Wilson stated that it was now necessary for the U.S. to intervene in the war in order to “make the world safe for democracy.” [1] The resolution was passed with a vote of 82-6 in the Senate and 373-50 in the House. [2] The resolution begins by stating that, “The Imperial German Government has committed repeated acts of war against the people of the United States of America .” These “acts of war” being referenced are the Germans’ use of unrestricted submarine warfare. American civilian ocean-liners including most notably the Lusitana, had been torpedoed by German naval forces since 1915, resulting in many (American) civilian lives being lost. In addition to the unrestricted submarine warfare on the part of the Germans, British intelligence intercepted the Zimmerman Telegram in January 1917, containing plans for Mexico to invade the U.S.. These acts of hostility culminated into a into an irrevocably negative public opinion toward Germany, on the part of the United States public. [1] Here, as in the Spanish American War, U.S. public opinion acted as a key contributor for the America to engage in war. Within the mere year and a half of U.S. intervention, the war came to a conclusion on 11 November, 1918. America’s intervention into World War I was the allied turning point of the war, due to the enormous military power of the U.S. America’s quest for “making the world safe,” set a precedent for how the U.S. would engage with later international violence. This source was accessed through the United States Senate’s archive for historical documents.

Magazine cover for Henry Luce’s”The American Century,” published in Time Magazine. (17 February 1941)

(Link to the article- http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mlassite/discussions261/luce.pdf)

This source is a 1941 article called “American Century”, published in Time Magazineby magazine magnate Henry Luce. In the article, published months prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor, Luce described what he felt the role of the United States globally ought to be for the coming years. Similar to how McKinley used the term some half-century prior, Luce again spoke of “duty” in regard to the moral obligation of the United States. Essentially Luce argues that America is a combination of great western values such as democracy and freedom, and furthermore America is the world’s “most vital and powerful nation” as he puts it. The idea presented in the source is that Americans have a “duty” to humankind to defend these aforementioned values internationally. This source is representative of how some of the US public thought its country should act on a global level. Later US foreign policy such as the Truman Doctrine, involvement in Korea, Vietnam and the war on terror, all cite the “duty” that the United States has in the world to defend the values which they pride themselves on. As Luce has been described as “the most influential private citizen of his age,” many Americans adapted his ideas of US internationalization. [3] This source covers an important aspect of the exhibition’s theme, and that is how the American people saw and valued their place in the world. This primary source was selected from within Professor Burgin’s U.S. History course and was originally published by Time Magazine.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, “Day of Infamy.” (8 December, 1941) 

Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered one of the most famous addresses in American History. On December 8^th, one day after the attack, FDR gave a nation-wide radio broadcasted address to a joint session of congress requesting a declaration of war against Japan. The purpose of FDR’s address was not only to get Congress to declare war, but to convince American people to support the war effort. The famous line “yesterday… a date which will live in infamy” demonstrated to the people FDR’s understanding of the horrific attack which the Japanese had “suddenly” perpetrated. The American people trusted FDR, as he was in his third term, and he assured them of his confidence that America would be victorious against the grave threats they were faced with. This speech covers an important section of the exhibition’s theme, how the country was able to unite and combat a force of evil. The Congress voted 534-1 to declare war on Japan, and soon after the United States began deploying troops to the Pacific and eventually Europe The American people believed in the cause they were fighting for, and the significance of FDR’s address inspired a sense of patriotism and ultimately a reason for all Americans to fight and contribute during World War II. This source was selected from within the Professor Burgin’s U.S. History course, with the clip accessed through youtube.

General George Marshall, “European Recovery Program.” (1948)

As Europe was digging through its remains in the years directly following the Second World War, U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall put forth a plan to rebuild the nearly destroyed continent. First presented in a commencement speech at Harvard in 1947, the Marshall Plan as it came to be known, called for a significant amount of money to be distributed throughout Europe. A key point to note, is that Marshall Aid specifically went to countries in Western Europe, deliberately avoiding the Soviet-controlled Eastern half of Europe. In the source, General Marshall opens by stating the that the plan is designed to “promote world peace.” Further saying (world peace) “is declared to be the policy of the United States,” resembling President Harry Truman’s words in the “Truman Doctrine.” The Marshall Plan was enacted during the hyper state of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union. It was in essence, America’s first attempt to combat communism, a war in which they would engage for over much of the 20th century. The goal was to help rebuild Europe, funneling money into anti-communist parties with the hope they would be able to resist the communist influence of the Soviet Union. the significance of the Marshall Plan is quite pertinent to the exhibition, in that America was now (in its own view) responsible for the welfare of nations in another continent. This source was accessed through the National Archives.

President George Bush, addressing the world from Ground Zero. (14 September, 2001)

Three days after the terrorist attacks of September 11th, President George Bush picked up a bull-horn and in a bold and admirable manner, addressed the world as to how the United States will bounce back from its darkest hour. It is well-documented that when Bush was informed of the attacks, he remained in his seat at the children’ s school function he was attending. Because of this, much of the public recognized Bush’s uncertainty as to how to respond to the attacks. But the effect his speech had on the crowd is simply overwhelming, with New Yorkers erupting into a chant of “USA,USA,USA!” The President would attempt to unify the devastated listeners by saying “we are with you.” This is an important source to examine because it comes just one week before President Bush’s address to Congress declaring “war on terror.” Similar to President Roosevelt’s signal for retaliation following Pearl Harbor, President Bush assures the people that he will do the same through the now famous line, “the people who knocked these buildings down will here from all of us soon.” The raw emotion that was at the forefront in American politics and society, speaks to the strong-emotionally driven motive that led the United States into Iraq and eventually Afghanistan the coming years. This source was accessed and presented through youtube.

 

Notes:

1. O’Brien, Payson Phillips. “American Press, Public, and the Reaction to the Outbreak of the First World War.” OUP Academic. April 26, 2013. Accessed May 06, 2019.

2. Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty!: An American History. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2017. (pg 742-45)

3. Herzstein, Robert, .Time and American Crusade in Asia, Cambridge U.P (2005).

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