George Washington, the man who invented the presidency, warned his countrymen on his way out of office that they should have "as little political connection as possible" with foreign intrigue and other governments -- the better to keep us out of war.
And though our elected leaders through the generations have paid homage to this sentiment, our nation has been caught up in such connections from the beginning. It's how the U.S. acquired the vast "Louisiana Territory" from France (President Thomas Jefferson) and Alaska from Russia (Secretary of State William Seward). Less costly financially, but morally more questionable, was the invasion of Mexico, which netted much of the Southwest (President James K. Polk).
But it was Woodrow Wilson's desire to prevent future wars that led the 28th president to stress the importance of religious freedom at Versailles. World War I was supposed to make the world "safe for democracy." It didn't do so, and only one generation later Franklin D. Roosevelt came to the ominous realization that -- contrary to what he assured voters on the 1940 campaign trail -- the United States was going to be dragged into World War II, notwithstanding George Washington's ghost.
Most U.S. commanders in chief since GW have believed, at some point in their presidencies, that America's national interest involved some level of military intervention abroad. We have been a martial people, even though we don't think of ourselves that way. Unique in world history, however, the U.S. doesn't fight for territory or resources. Instead, generally speaking, it fights for its own safety and for the principle of extending freedom to people who don't have it.
A noble impulse, if often problematic. For one thing, it's difficult to accomplish practically, as we learned in Vietnam and Iraq and Afghanistan. It's also too easy once the killing begins for warriors to lose sight of the big picture. You can't save a village by destroying it.
And yet, U.S. efforts to extend human rights around the globe, especially freedom of speech and freedom of worship, are invariably lauded by those persecuted in other countries. To them, America does represent the last best hope of mankind on earth.
In his Jan. 6, 1941, State of the Union address, President Franklin D. Roosevelt confronted this conundrum. Only nine weeks earlier, he had assured America's mothers and fathers that their "boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars."
In his 1941 State of the Union speech, he had a different message. "I find it unhappily necessary to report that the future and the safety of our country and our democracy are overwhelmingly involved in events far beyond our borders," Roosevelt said.
This was the speech in which FDR articulated what became known as the "Four Freedoms" -- freedom of expression, freedom of worship, freedom from fear, freedom from want -- everywhere in the world. It was that electrifying phrase, "everywhere in the world," repeated after the articulation of each freedom, that gave the speech its rhetorical staying power. But it's quite a burden, and Americans are still struggling with its vast implications.
It's also our quote of the week.
