Tom Brokaw once said, “It’s easy to make a buck. It’s a lot tougher to make a difference.” This quotation relates directly to James Monroe’s situation as a former President of the United States of America: instead of simply earning his wages and performing his normal presidential duties, James Monroe took the initiative to make a difference—a difference that affected not only the former United States, but one that is still affecting American policy today. Although James Monroe is often considered to be the weakest of the “Virginia Dynasty” presidents, he left the United States of America with one of the most effective, far-reaching documents in American history: the Monroe Doctrine. Since the adoption of the doctrine, it has been utilized primarily as a means of insuring the United States national security and of freedom for Americans throughout the decades.
In 1823, the European threat of colonization in South America heightened. On December 2, 1823 in his annual address to Congress, James Monroe issued a stern warning to the European powers. Monroe’s message, which later came to be called the Monroe Doctrine, preached noncolonization and nonintervention in the Western hemisphere. Monroe announced that the time for colonization in the Americas had ceased. Countries could keep the land they had already acquired, but they would not be able to acquire more. Monroe was mostly concerned with the security of the United States, not of Latin America’s security; however, allowing intervention in these areas bordering the United States’ territory could potentially threaten American independence in the future. Thus, Monroe deemed action on behalf of the United States crucial for guaranteeing in the future America’s freedom from foreign oppression. The European monarchs were angered in response to Monroe’s proclamation, for they knew that the United States likely was incapable of backing of the edict militarily. In spite of their anger, though, they did not challenge the Doctrine . Thus, the Monroe Doctrine did effectively establish a bold precedent that facilitated the purposes of the United States well in future years.
During the American Civil War, the United States was a vulnerable nation politically as well as economically. To make matters worse, Napoleon III, at the same general time in 1863, installed a “puppet regime” in Mexico, which consisted of the French army as the puppeteers and the Mexican citizens as the puppets. The very next year, Napoleon III installed Austrian archduke Maximilian as the emperor of Mexico. The French army’s presence in Mexico as well as the enthronement of Maximilian were both blatant violations of the Monroe Doctrine. Abraham Lincoln, to combat the foreign intervention of Napoleon in the Western Hemisphere, reiterated the Monroe Doctrine. The United States, particularly Secretary of State William Seward, promised to send troops to remove Maximilian from power and the French army from Mexico. Napoleon III, however, backed down and removed the French army before the United States was compelled to use military force against Napoleon III and those in his regime. The Maximilian regime, as a result, collapsed ; the Monroe Doctrine was successful once again in providing security from foreign intervention in the Western Hemisphere.
At the turn of the century, the Monroe Doctrine was again invoked—this time by Theodore Roosevelt. An increasingly militaristic Germany began threatening to invade Venezuela due to Venezuela’s inability to repay its loans. Again, the Monroe Doctrine was applied. Roosevelt declared that the United States would continue to intervene on the behalf of any Latin American country that fell behind in its debts. The Latin American countries, though, often resented the doctrine, for they often felt that the Monroe Doctrine was hypocritical since the United States refused to allow foreign countries to intervene in the Latin American affairs, yet the United States still partook in the affairs itself. Regardless of the Latin countries’ disapproval for the Doctrine, though, it did prove as an effective means of protecting the countries from unwanted Eastern intervention.
During World War II, Latin American countries agreed to join with the United States to uphold the Doctrine. France and Poland had already been captured by Germany and the United States began preparing more soldiers and acquiring more ammunitions. Latin American countries became aware that the colonies in Latin America under the control of the Netherlands, of Denmark, and of France might soon fall under the dictatorial rule of Nazi Germany. In 1940 at the Havana Conference, the United States, represented by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, agreed to share with twenty of its Western Hemisphere neighbors the responsibility of upholding and enforcing the Monroe Doctrine . The Monroe Doctrine, at this point, became a multilateral document, simultaneously gaining more prestige and power.
During the Cold War, the Monroe Doctrine was applied yet again. The United States utilized the Doctrine to reiterate that the Soviet Union’s interference in the Western Hemisphere would not be tolerated. Americans were very fearful of the Soviet Union establishing a base in Cuba only ninety miles from American soil. The United States ultimately never used force against the Soviets in the name of the Doctrine, because Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet dictator, promised an attack on the United States if they responded to the Soviet’s military presence in the Western Hemisphere. Instead, the United States established a naval quarantine around Cuba. Soviet Union troops, in effect, were prevented from entering Cuba. Khrushchev ultimately ordered the Soviet ships to return home. At San Jose, Costa Rica in August of 1960, the United States expounded upon the Monroe Doctrine with the formation of the American States, which was to be used to halt the communist infiltration into the Americas. This, again, provided citizens with a sense of security and American politicians with the feeling that they held the upper hand in the confrontation.
The tension between the United States, Cuba, and the Soviet Union drastically heightened when United States spy planes revealed that the Soviets were quickly and secretly constructing nuclear-tipped missiles in Cuba. This game, later referred to as “nuclear chicken,” began between President John F. Kennedy and Khrushchev involved both leaders threatening to attack the other with nuclear weapons if provoked. Finally, on October 28, 1961, Khrushchev weakened, and he agreed to a compromise and pulled his missiles out of Cuba . The Monroe Doctrine and the society derived from such ultimately gave the United States the backing necessary for their citizens to take a stand against the dictatorial Soviet Union.
Although the Monroe Doctrine has been implemented in several historical situations in United States history, the most important thing offered by the document was a sense of security. Europe, in the last century, has been devastated by warfare on their own soil at least twice; the United States of America, with the exception of the American Civil War, has thankfully never experienced homeland warfare. The sense of security enjoyed by Americans can be greatly attributed to James Monroe and his foresight in proclaiming what has been known throughout history and is still referred to today as the Monroe Doctrine. The Monroe Doctrine has been invoked by great presidents not only to meet, but to conquer, the threats of fascism, communism, and even the ever-evolving nuclear age. Thus, with the Monroe Doctrine, James Monroe has truly earned and is deserving of being called the “Guardian of a Free Hemisphere,” for, if not for him, Americans would have risked being deprived of the security and protection enjoyed by United States citizens throughout history.
