What History Tells Us About Trump’s “Big Stick”
AQ’s editor-in-chief dives into the archive of U.S.-Latin America relations, and emerges with four takeaways.
This article is adapted from AQ's upcoming special report on the Trump Doctrine The year was 1902, and the world’s eyes were on Venezuela. European powers, furious over Caracas’ unpaid debts, menacingly deployed gunboats to the southern Caribbean. U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt believed that, in this instance, the Monroe Doctrine did not apply. “If any South American state misbehaves toward any European country,” Roosevelt declared, “let the European country spank it.” Spank it they did. Germany, acting with support from Great Britain and Italy, declared a blockade...
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