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by Adib Rashad ~

  The years between the Civil War and the war with Spain witnessed a
profound turning point in American foreign policy. Those years
transformed the traditions of the Central American missions policy to a
new state of affairs, and anticolonialism as an issue of concern was
relegated to immateriality.

The first of these traditions had been drastically transformed, if not
destroyed, by the doctrine called the Manifest Destiny.

Before the Civil War, many Americans had proclaimed this doctrine, and
allowed it to imbue them with the belief that the whole continent of
North America, stretching across to the Pacific, belonged by Divine
Right to the American (Caucasians) people. This belief actualized itself
in the annexation of Texas and the war with Spain.

A vigorous and relentless anticolonialistic attitude had been
exemplified in both the so-called founding fathers and the congress
toward other (people of color) people's empires. This attitude
consistently provided for the admission of newly acquired territory as
states of the union on a footing of equality with the original ones.

In the years after 1865,an aggressive expansionism viewed the
Caribbean, Latin American, and the Pacific as lands to be cultivated by
Americans (Caucasians). Furthermore, toward the end of the century and
moving into the next, the acquisition by the United States of overseas
territories as states of the union on a footing of equality with the
original ones.

Dr. Michael H. Hunt in his highly illuminating book titled Ideology
and U. S. Foreign Policy points out by way of official documents and
lucid illustrations, and scrutinizes the intellectual, political, and
racial roots of American foreign policy objectives.

Dr. Hunt utilizes American diplomatic history to persuasively argue
that a particular ideology has shaped and molded America's role in
foreign policy affairs. He traces the rise and impact of this ideology
from the eighteenth century to the present.

He cites and analyzes various presidents' political and racial
philosophy towards various people who did not, by way of definition,
coincide with the American perception of a civilized people.

Diplomatic scholars such as George Kennan and William Appleman
Williams wrestled with the relation of ideology to foreign policy along
legalistic and moralistic grounds. Dr. Hunt, on the other hand, presents
his own interpretation and emphasizes three pervasive and enduring
facets that have historically and politically shaped America's vision of
the world--the third world in particular.
1. A prevailing conception of a national mission that is defined in
terms of the rigorous promotion of liberty abroad--this concept
translates to American Nationalism, or White Supremacy.
2. A crude classification of other peoples in a racial hierarchy that
reflects the class and ethnic preferences passed down from the so-called
founding fathers.
3. A belligerent attitude towards anything, or any people who deviate
from the American norm.
It is these three linking factors which have guided and established
American foreign policy. However, Dr. Hunt strongly believes and argues
that this racial ideology--especially since Viet Nam--has conceptionally
and operationally outlived its pragmatic usefulness.
Obviously, the so-called war in Afghanistan shatters his arguement.

In conclusion, for people who are disgruntled and befuddled about the
political situations in the Middle East, Latin America, Asia, Africa,
and even Afghanistan, you should objectively consider the fact that, for
the most part, American, and even European foreign policy concerns are
usually predicated on land acquisition along with a racial philosophy.

*=====
Adib Rashad (RashadM@aol.com) is an education consultant, education
program director, author, and historian. He has lived and taught in
West Africa and South East Asia.

This article was previously published by theMarcusGarveyBBS (an entity of TheBlackList)
and TheBlackList at http://lists.topica.com/lists/TheBlackList/read