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Review of the Ambiguous Legacy: U.S. Foreign Relations in the  Scholars Crossing Faculty Publications and Presentations Department of History 5-2000 Review of The Ambiguous Legacy: U.S. Foreign Relations in the “American Century" David Lindsey Snead Liberty University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/hist_fac_pubs Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Snead, David Lindsey, "Review of The Ambiguous Legacy: U.S. Foreign Relations in the “American Century"" (2000). Faculty Publications and Presentations. 21. https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/hist_fac_pubs/21 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of History at Scholars Crossing. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications and Presentations by an authorized administrator of Scholars Crossing. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Michael J. Hogan, ed. The Ambiguous Legacy: U.S Foreign Relations in the "American Century". New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999. xiii + 534 pp. $17.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-521-77977-7. Reviewed by David L. Snead (Department of History, Texas Tech University) Published on H-Diplo (May, 2000) Diverse Approaches and Perspectives in United States ForeignRelations Michael J. Hogan has pulled together a masterful ican ways, so indirect, in fact that frequently, but far collection of essays that to varying degrees play off of from always, it is still invited to play the preeminent Henry Luce's famous 1940 article from Time maga- role it does toward the end of the (first?) Ameri- zine, \The American Century." Luce argued that the can Century" (p. 91). In response to critics who vision of the United States \as a world power includes argue that the United States would have acted the a passionate devotion to great American ideals ... a way it did regardless of whether it was invited or not, love of freedom, a feeling for the equality of oppor- Lundestad contends that what is important is how tunity, a tradition of self-reliance and independence frequently U.S. objectives fit European goals and de- and also of cooperation" (p. 28). In this volume, six- sires. He concludes that because most countries want teen esteemed historians and political scientists pro- to be tied to the United States, they obviously have vide their assessments of whether the United States a generally positive view towards its policies. fulfilled Luce's vision. As Hogan's title indicates, Robert Jervis takes a positive view of U.S. foreign these scholars offer widely different perspectives on policy in the twentieth century in his essay, \America the most important issues and policies in American and the Twentieth Century: Continuity and Change." foreign policy in the twentieth century and the ef- He emphasizes that one of the key points to recognize fectiveness of policy makers in achieving their goals. in international affairs is the unprecedented peace that exists between the major powers today. He ar- Tony Smith's \Making the World Safe for Democ- gues while the nuclear revolution and the Cold War racy in the American Century" presents the view that did at times hamper democracy, the United States Wilsonian liberalism has prevailed over other political has been able to keep the peace while spreading its systems. While he does not discount that the United democratic and political ideals. He believes that the States at times abused its predominant position in United States should be given credit for thi, conclud- the world, he stresses that generally the world has ing that \the American security position resembles benefited from American hegemony. Furthermore, what it was at the start of the century [few security most countries have come to accept the very values threats] while the world has become more compatible that the United States represents. He concludes \in with American values" (p. 92). many ways, the history of American foreign policy In \The Idea of the National Interest," H. W. has confirmed his [Woodrow Wilson's] essential ge- Brands asserts that \Since 1898 Americans had nius (and the convictions of Henry Luce as well) { his agreed that the national interest encompassed pros- understanding that the expansion of American power perity, democracy, and security; but which of the worldwide might indeed be of benefit not only to this three counted most in the national interest depended country but to the cause of humanity in general so on who was counting and when" (pp. 150-1). He long as it was dedicated to the promotion of demo- points to the American pursuit of empire at the be- cratic government worldwide" (pp. 50-1). ginning of the century as representative of the ascen- Geir Lundestad builds on some of his early ar- dancy of prosperity as the main theme of American guments in \'Empire by Invitation' in the American foreign policy between 1900 and 1920. He concludes Century." He argues that \Rarely does the United that Woodrow Wilson's emphasis on democracy led States conquer; it rules in more indirect, more Amer- to the rise of that idea as the dominant theme through 1 H-Net Reviews World War II. Finally, he argues that America's to- never realized this critical point. Instead, \Within tal focus on maintaining security in the Cold War a region struggling to recover from the privations of marked the rise to prominence of the third theme. international conflict and civil war, assertive Amer- At all times, the other themes remained present but icans spawned fresh devastation, often prolonged or in subservient roles. Brands stresses, though, that created instability, and in the final analysis may have regardless of which theme was dominant, none pro- done more to obstruct and delay than to advance the duced the results that the United States desired. cause of freedom that Luce so prized" (p. 271). Walter LaFeber argues in \The Tension between In \The American Century and the Third World," Democracy and Capitalism during the American Bruce Cumings argues that the last half of the twenti- Century"that the United States pursuit of capitalism, eth century was indeed America's century. However, not democracy, has dominated the twentieth century. he also asserts that U.S. leadership has deliberately To support his arguments, he points to American ef- limited the development of the Third World, arguing forts to rebuild the Japanese and Western European that \The Third World moves not up the develop- economies after World War II, the CIA-inspired coup mental ladder, but from statehood to catastrophe" in Guatemala, and the Vietnam War. He claims that (p. 298). Cumings claims that the United States and American policy makers did not oppose democratic other leading countries dominate the Third World to- governments but were more much more concerned day in ways never seen before, and in this dominance with whether a country fit within its economic sys- will be found \the primary source of war, instability, tem. The result was that \The American push for and class conflict" (p. 297). Accordingly, Cumings expanding liberal democracy has thus been an on- raises the question as to whether the American cen- and-mostly off policy during the American Century. tury has truly produced the positive results that some It has been mostly off because of racism, exceptional- have claimed. ism, a fear at times of results from truly democratic Gerald Horne explores the importance of race elections, a dislike if not hatred for the kind of par- to American foreign policy in his essay, \Race from ticipatory democracy spawned by the events of the Power: U.S. Foreign Policy and the General Crisis of 1960s, and, of particular importance, the consistent 'White Supremacy."' He argues that from the begin- demonstration in actual policy that the expansion of ning of the century, which he dates as 1898, there has capitalist systems is more important than the expan- been a struggle between two contradictory themes in sion of liberal democratic systems" (p. 154). the United States: white supremacy and the fight In \The American Century: From Sarajevo to against it. He notes that race played pivotal roles in Sarajevo," Joan Hoff concludes that \the American how the United States reacted to Japan in the years score card on democracy is long on rhetoric and leading up to and through World War II and shaped short on results, primarily because the practice of its colonial policies after the war. He concludes \U.S. independent internationalism has more often than foreign policy will continue to be shaped by racial not sacrificed democracy on the twin alters of self- considerations" (p. 336). determination and capitalism" (p. 198). She argues In \Immigrants and Frontiersmen: Two Tradi- that instead of trying to lead the world for the better- tions in American Foreign Policy," Godfrey Hodgson ment of all, the United States has focused on its own asserts that \The tradition of the frontier, which has self-interest. In doing so, while it has equated cap- impelled Americans toward expansion, still clashes italism with democracy, in reality it was subverting with the memory of immigration, restraining them democracy for the sake of capitalism. from involvement in a world that, if not always Michael H. Hunt's \East Asia in Henry Luce's wicked, is at least entangling, frustrating, and po- 'American Century"' presents a critical assessment tentially a damaging distraction from the essential of both Luce's vision and U.S. foreign policy in the American enterprise, which has been the realiza- twentieth century. Hunt argues that American con- tion of individual dreams of freedom and prosper- sumer products have had much more influence in Asia ity" (p. 346). The continuing conflict has prevented than U.S. political ideas. He stresses that Asians took the United States from offering the leadership that American ideas and products and transformed them the world needs.
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