Special Providence_ American Foreign Policy and How It Changed World - Walter Russell Mead

138 SPECIALPROVIDENCE

northernEurope,burwithitsspecifichistoryandmeaningintheUnited
States.RootedoriginallyintheseparatistpietyofPuritanNewEngland,
andnurturedinthelong,coolafterglowofYankeeCalvinismindecline,
the Wilsonian subculture has exercised a continuous and powerful
influenceinsideandoursidegovernmentfromtheeighteenthcentury
onward. Despiteits longhistorical record inthe UnitedStates and
abroad,thisstreakofthenationalcharactercontinuestomakebothfor-
eignandAmericananalystsuncomfortable.TheHamiltonianschoolof
foreignpolicy isa well-known, comfortablepresenceininternational
relations.Itis familiar,ifoftenmisunderstood.Muchmoreproblematic
fromthestandpointofconventionaldiplomacyistheWilsonianstreak
inthenationalcharacter:a viewthatinsiststhattheUnitedStateshas
therightandthedurytochangetherestoftheworld'sbehavior,andthat
theUnitedStatescanandshouldconcernitselfnotonlywiththeway
othercountriesconducttheirinternationalaffairs,butwiththeirdomes-
ticpoliciesaswell.
ThevenomandridiculethatrealistsinBritainandelsewherehave
pouredandcontinuetopourontheWilsonianapproachtoforeignpolicy
isbothstartlingandstrange.EversincethefirstWashingtonadminis-
tration,when,especiallybeforetheReignofTerror,a substantialforcein
Americanpolitics believedthat thedutyandinterestoftheUnited
StatesrequiredittojoinrevolutionaryFranceina generalwaragainst
themonarchicalstates,theWilsonianimpulsehasbeentreatedwiththe
kindofhostilitywithwhichAhabandJezebelgreetedthesermonsof
Elijah,orwithwhichHerodiasheardthepreachingofJohntheBaptist.
Indeed,itwasWilson'sheadonaplatterthatSigmundFreudsought
toserveupwhen,withAmericandiplomatWilliamC.Bullitt,hepenned
themostvenomousportraitextantinpsychoanalyticliterature,a "psy-
chobiography"ofWilson.HenryKissinger'swarningsagainstmoralism
inAmericanforeignpolicyarea recentandrelativelymildexampleof
thisgenre.Evensothoughtfulandgenerousa historianasthePulitzer
Prize-winningWalterMcDonoughhassingledoutthe"globalmelior-
ist"Wilsoniantraditionasanillegitimateinterloperintheotherwise
statelyprocessionofAmericanforeignpolicy.
Andyet,aswithsomanybiblicalprophets,thesonsbuildatombfor
thevisionaries theirfathers had killed. We have already notedthat
Europehascometoacceptthepr~phetthatitscorned,andthatevery
EuropeanstatewestoftheoldSoviet Unionnowconductsitspolicy
alongrecognizablyWilsonianlines.RonaldReagan,whocametooffice