AN ERA OF INTERVENTION ★^737bring freedom to other peoples. In either case, liberal internationalism repre-
sented a shift from the nineteenth- century tradition of promoting freedom pri-
marily by example, to active intervention to remake the world in the American
image.
American involvement in World War I provided the first great test of Wil-
son’s belief that American power could “make the world safe for democracy.”
Most Progressives embraced the country’s participation in the war, believing
that the United States could help to spread Progressive values throughout the
world. The government quickly came to view critics of American involvement
not simply as citizens with a different set of opinions, but as enemies of the very
ideas of democracy and freedom. As a result, the war produced one of the most
sweeping repressions of the right to dissent in all of American history. Rather
than bringing Progressivism to other peoples, the war destroyed it at home.
AN ERA OF INTERVENTION
Just as they expanded the powers of the federal government in domestic affairs,
the Progressive presidents were not reluctant to project American power out-
side the country’s borders. At first, they confined their interventions to the
Western Hemisphere, whose affairs the United States had claimed a special
right to oversee ever since the Monroe Doctrine of 1823. Between 1901 and
1920, U.S. marines landed in Caribbean countries more than twenty times. Usu-
ally, they were dispatched to create a welcoming economic environment for
American companies that wanted stable access to raw materials like bananas
and sugar, and for bankers nervous that their loans to local governments might
not be repaid.
“I Took the Canal Zone”
Just as he distinguished between good and bad trusts, Theodore Roosevelt
divided the world into “civilized” and “uncivilized” nations. The former, he
believed, had an obligation to establish order in an unruly world. Roosevelt
became far more active in international diplomacy than most of his prede-
cessors, helping, for example, to negotiate a settlement of the Russo- Japanese
War of 1905, a feat for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Closer to
home, his policies were more aggressive. “I have always been fond of the West
African proverb,” he wrote, “‘Speak softly and carry a big stick.’” And although
he declared that the United States “has not the slightest desire for territorial
aggrandizement at the expense of its southern neighbors,” Roosevelt pursued a
policy of intervention in Central America.
In what ways did the Progressive presidents promote the expansion
of American power overseas?