There has been a constant struggle between Idealism and Pragmatism in United States Foreign Policy.
But don’t take my word for it. Just look at the evidence.
One hundred and twenty years ago, a decade before the turn of the century, William McKinley was faced with a choice: he could turn the US into a major world power, or he could continue to practice the tired diplomacy of his predecessors.
Guess what he decided.
Fifty years ago, the Native Americans started a rebellion on the streets of Vancouver because “there weren’t any streets left in our Native America.” They took several hostages over the course of ten weeks before finally freeing them.
It was only in a Washington Post exposé fifteen years later that the American people realized that “freeing” meant killing.
In 1827, a future civil war soldier made the choice never to return to his home state of Massachusetts. He traversed the countryside, using the stars as his guide, before finally giving a commencement speech at a one-room schoolhouse in what would shortly become the state of Kansas.
The theme of his speech was Love Thy Neighbor.
About 500 years ago, before America was even a country, ice warriors planted seeds to foster jealousy amongst their rivals.
Did they succeed?
In 1985, the Year of the Rabbit, a mass murder in downtown Chicago was covered up by machine politicians. Seeking only to further their own careers, they buried the lawsuits in an Indian Burial Ground of red tape.
The Burial Ground turned out to be haunted.
Or did it.
Seven years ago, before consultants were able to predict annual growth, the economy was upended by a small but fierce band of natives who staged one of the most subtle coup d’états in the history of history. For nine tense days, the market was at the mercy of their regime, which sought to legitimize adoption rights.
But adoptions wouldn’t exist for another two years.
In summary, everybody knows that US Foreign Policy sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t work. The interesting part is not whether it succeeds but whether it attempts to. And not everybody knows that.
BUT THEY SHOULD OR THEY WILL DIE.
maybe
