The American trajectory: from republic to empire.

• Author: Jones, Curtis F.

Text:

The American Constitution was constructed to reconcile the efficiency of a supreme national authority with the security of a system that would bar the emergence of a dictatorship. The secret ingredient was the separation of powers among three segments of government: an executive, a legislature, and a judiciary.

This arrangement has one inescapable weakness: the tactical advantage of an individual over a committee. Individual initiative can run clandestine rings around the deliberations of a group.

In time of crisis, the electorate relies on this imbalance to save the nation. Since 1929, the United States has been bombarded by a shattering series of challenges - the Great Depression, World War II, the Cold War, nuclear proliferation, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the collapse of European imperialism, the Arab-Israeli conflict, Third World instability, the rise of anti-Americanism, the unprecedented burst of violence on American soil on 9/11/2001, the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and the economic travails of the European Union.

In these circumstances, Washington has inadvertently skidded into the malefactions of imperialism, the US has come to be characterized as the National Security State, or the Warfare State, and the powers of the President have expanded to overshadow those of the other two branches of government.

For an understanding of how the imperial presidency evolved, there is no substitute for a chronological review of the actual performance of the thirteen men who presided over it. What were their abilities, and how did they put them to use - or to misuse?

Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933-45

He was a formidable politician, whose native talent, warm personality, and self-confidence instilled by an aristocratic background seem to have been reinforced by empathy acquired from an excruciating battle with polio. An emotional vacuum in his marriage was filled by close relationships--first with Lucy Mercer, later with Marguerite "Missy" LeHand (his private secretary for 21 years), finally with a widowed Lucy Mercer. Divorce was blocked--fortunately, because Eleanor Roosevelt, whose affections lay elsewhere, was a paragon of statesmanship in her own right. Dedicating her public life to the administration, she contributed determination and compassion to a powerful executive team.

Achievements

Depression - Roosevelt's upbeat personality, his facility for innovation, Eleanor's cooperation, and the oxymoronic benefits of World War II rescued the nation from its worst-ever economic crisis. They unwittingly laid the foundations of a welfare state.

World War II - Given the enduring consensus that joining the war against Naziism was a vital national interest, Roosevelt shrewdly outmaneuvered the isolationists and commanded a war effort that defeated Japan and provided crucial assistance to the Russian defeat of Germany.

Globalization - Roosevelt and Churchill took historic steps toward replacing the feeble League of Nations with more effective international institutions (Atlantic Charter, 1941; United Nations, 1945).

Mistakes

Pearl Harbor (1941) - Intelligence failure.

Internment - Mistreatment of Japanese-Americans.

Jewish Refugees - Failure to open the door to refugees from Nazi genocide.

Zionism - Inflicting the refugee problem on the undeserving Arab World (which is still paying the price of Western perfidy), and succumbing to special interest groups - the Zionist and military-industrial lobbies.

Succession - Excluding Vice President Truman from White House counsels.

Saudi Deal (1945) - Out of exaggerated fear of losing access to Gulf oil, FDR set the costly precedent of guaranteeing the security of a state in a region doomed to an era of instability, and over-extending the missions of the American armed forces.

Harry S. Truman, 1945-53

Not very successful in business, but a knowledgeable amateur historian, Truman may have been the most conventional figure to occupy the White House. He never wavered before momentous decisions like deploying the atomic bomb.

Achievements

GI Bill (1945).

Manhattan Project (1945).

UN (1945) - Implemented FDR's vision.

National Security Act (1947) - Set up the National Security Council and the CIA. Unified the military services.

Truman Doctrine (1947) - Hailed by some as sheltering two strategic countries (Greece and Turkey) from Soviet aspirations, but questioned by others as another step (after Saudi Arabia) in the fateful expansion of America's military commitments in Asia.

Civil Rights (1948) - Truman ordered the racial integration of the armed forces. His injection of the racial segregation issue into the Presidential campaign lost him four states to the Dixiecrats.

Marshall Plan (1948) - Designed by Will Clayton and George Kerman. The soundest foreign-policy decision ever taken by the US (?).

Berlin Airlift (1948-49) - Broke the Soviet blockade without triggering hostilities.

NATO (1949) - Consolidation of the crucial Euro-American alliance.

Point Four (1950) - Admirable in concept, unimpressive in execution.

MacArthur Dismissal (1951) - The modest captain (World War I) faced down the gifted but self-important legend - four-star general by the age of 50.

Mistakes

Hiroshima/Nagasaki (1945) - Although the decision to use the atomic bomb against Japan has always had majority support, there is no record (?) of any prior consideration of the strategic and ethical implications of setting that awesome precedent.

UNGA Partition Plan (1947) - Instead o f opposing American resistance to admission of Jewish refugees, Washington stooped to crude political machination to ram through the UN General Assembly a plan that blatantly favored Zionist interest over Arab, was ludicrous in concept, and imposed Europe's refugee problem upon the guiltless Arabs.

Two Chinas (1949) - Washington succumbed to another special-interest group - this time the China lobby.

Vietnam (1950) - When French rule collapsed, Washington took over the imperialist role.

Korean War (1950-53) - Washington's failure to draw a red line in Korea led to war.

Tripartite Declaration (1950) - The US joined the UK and France in an unworkable guarantee to keep peace between Zionists and Palestinians.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953-61

Eisenhower's cautious nature, which habituated him to conceal how well he grasped the details of any subject under discussion, led people to underrate his intellect. Subsequent analysis has established him as one of our ablest Presidents. He saw the big picture - e.g., "Nobody can win a nuclear war." His farewell address was a landmark warning to the electorate to husband America's resources, and beware of the military-industrial complex.

Achievements

Korean Armistice (1953).

Appointment of Chief Justice Earl Warren (1953).

Quashing of the Anglo-French-Israeli invasion of Egypt (1956).

Interstate Highway System (1956).

Federal Troops to Little Rock (1957) - Crushed the Governor's resistance to a Federal integration order.

IAEA (1957) - Eisenhower's suggestion of1953 was realized by the founding of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Ultimatum to Israel (1957) - Using leverage whose specifics were never publicized, Eisenhower overrode Israel's determination to maintain its occupation of Gaza and Sinai - the only known case of Israeli capitulation to American pressure since 1948.

Mistakes

Selection of Nixon as VP (1952) - A decision Eisenhower later regretted.

Iran (1953) - The US and the UK staged a coup against Mohammed Mossadeq, the elected Prime Minister, who had moved to nationalize the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, which had been exploiting Iranian oil resources for years.

Vietnam (1954) - The Geneva Accords foreshadowed the termination of French rule over Vietnam, but the US rejected them, undertaking to build an anticommunist state in South Vietnam - in effect assuming the imperialist role abandoned by France.

Guatemala (1954) - The agrarian reforms of President Arbenz clashed with the immoderate goals of the United Fruit Co., an American firm...