emazur
10-23-2009, 02:31 PM
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23778.htm
Both Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson declared that God had given American leaders—"Christ's Army," according to Wilson—the divine duty to "improve" the backward peoples of America and the world. Roosevelt and Wilson used that rationale to establish modern progressivism and American imperialism, both of which were part of what Roosevelt called "the long struggle for the uplift of humanity." They argued that greater government intervention, through social welfare and regulatory programs at home and military incursions abroad, would remake American slums and all the countries of the world into the Puritan ideal of a "city on a hill."
To fulfill this mission, Roosevelt championed many social-welfare measures, including pure-food and worker-safety regulations, but he also pushed the United States to attack Spain and occupy Cuba and the Philippines—the so-called Spanish-American War, which historians characterize as America's "first imperial war.” The assault and subsequent occupations resulted in the deaths of more than 10,000 Cubans, several hundred thousand Filipino civilians, and 4,541 American soldiers.
Wilson believed that to "Christianize the world" required the radical expansion of government power. Along with fellow progressives in Congress, Wilson established three classic progressive institutions: the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Reserve Board, and the federal income tax. But Wilson's self-appointed obligation to rescue and “redeem” all the world's people compelled him, beginning in 1916, to push the country toward intervention in Europe with what many historians call a "missionary zeal." The United States, he said, "must assume the messianic mantle" and had "the right and duty to intervene whenever and wherever" its leaders thought necessary. Some 116,000 U.S. servicemen were killed and more than 200,000 wounded in World War I, which ended in a virtual stalemate.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the next president to take up the liberal mission. According to Robert Dallek's award-winning biography, the origin of FDR's commitment to social-welfare programs and international interventionism was "the Christian gentleman's ideal of service to the less fortunate: the conviction that privileged Americans should take a part in relieving national and international ills."
Long before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt urged intervention against Japan's expansion in the Pacific. And there is considerable evidence and substantial agreement among scholars that Roosevelt did everything in his power to force Japan into a conflict with the United States. Though Japan wished to avoid confrontation with its principal trading partner, in 1937 Roosevelt suggested that military action was needed to “quarantine the aggressor.” And beginning in 1940, he imposed a series of embargoes on the island nation, which was almost entirely dependent on U.S. imports for its industrial production. After Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt promised both victory against Japan and "the establishment of an international order in which the spirit of Christ shall rule the hearts of men and nations."
Roosevelt's successor, Harry Truman, whose Baptist evangelical upbringing informed his pledge “to win the world back to peace and Christianity,” made immense incursions across the globe. Truman rejected the doctrine of defensive "containment" of the Soviets in favor of a "rollback" policy, elaborated by the CIA in 1950, to aggressively" foster a world environment in which the American system can survive and flourish." In September 1950, Truman turned the Korean War into an all-out offensive mission by launching a military assault that pushed North Korean communists deep into their own territory. A large portion of the 37,000 American casualties in the war came during the offensive.
Both Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson declared that God had given American leaders—"Christ's Army," according to Wilson—the divine duty to "improve" the backward peoples of America and the world. Roosevelt and Wilson used that rationale to establish modern progressivism and American imperialism, both of which were part of what Roosevelt called "the long struggle for the uplift of humanity." They argued that greater government intervention, through social welfare and regulatory programs at home and military incursions abroad, would remake American slums and all the countries of the world into the Puritan ideal of a "city on a hill."
To fulfill this mission, Roosevelt championed many social-welfare measures, including pure-food and worker-safety regulations, but he also pushed the United States to attack Spain and occupy Cuba and the Philippines—the so-called Spanish-American War, which historians characterize as America's "first imperial war.” The assault and subsequent occupations resulted in the deaths of more than 10,000 Cubans, several hundred thousand Filipino civilians, and 4,541 American soldiers.
Wilson believed that to "Christianize the world" required the radical expansion of government power. Along with fellow progressives in Congress, Wilson established three classic progressive institutions: the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Reserve Board, and the federal income tax. But Wilson's self-appointed obligation to rescue and “redeem” all the world's people compelled him, beginning in 1916, to push the country toward intervention in Europe with what many historians call a "missionary zeal." The United States, he said, "must assume the messianic mantle" and had "the right and duty to intervene whenever and wherever" its leaders thought necessary. Some 116,000 U.S. servicemen were killed and more than 200,000 wounded in World War I, which ended in a virtual stalemate.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the next president to take up the liberal mission. According to Robert Dallek's award-winning biography, the origin of FDR's commitment to social-welfare programs and international interventionism was "the Christian gentleman's ideal of service to the less fortunate: the conviction that privileged Americans should take a part in relieving national and international ills."
Long before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt urged intervention against Japan's expansion in the Pacific. And there is considerable evidence and substantial agreement among scholars that Roosevelt did everything in his power to force Japan into a conflict with the United States. Though Japan wished to avoid confrontation with its principal trading partner, in 1937 Roosevelt suggested that military action was needed to “quarantine the aggressor.” And beginning in 1940, he imposed a series of embargoes on the island nation, which was almost entirely dependent on U.S. imports for its industrial production. After Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt promised both victory against Japan and "the establishment of an international order in which the spirit of Christ shall rule the hearts of men and nations."
Roosevelt's successor, Harry Truman, whose Baptist evangelical upbringing informed his pledge “to win the world back to peace and Christianity,” made immense incursions across the globe. Truman rejected the doctrine of defensive "containment" of the Soviets in favor of a "rollback" policy, elaborated by the CIA in 1950, to aggressively" foster a world environment in which the American system can survive and flourish." In September 1950, Truman turned the Korean War into an all-out offensive mission by launching a military assault that pushed North Korean communists deep into their own territory. A large portion of the 37,000 American casualties in the war came during the offensive.