The American habit of empire, and the cases of Polk and Bush

Western Historical Quarterly

Volumn 38, Issue 1, 2007, Pages 5-23

  Nugent, Walter ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 58149302145     PISSN: 00433810     EISSN: 19398603     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/whq/38.1.5     Document Type: Article

References (45)

1. My apologies to non-U.S. inhabitants of North and South America for the linguistic imperialism of the term "Americans" as so used. Unfortunately, our language does not include equivalents to (Spanish) norteamericanos or (Italian) statunitensi.
2. For detail, see Walter Nugent, "Frontiers and Empires in the Late Nineteenth Century," Western Historical Quarterly 20 (November 1989): 393-408.
3. Discussions of American exceptionalism include Jack P. Greene, The Intellectual Construction of America: Exceptionalism and Identity from 1492 to 1800 (Chapel Hill, 1993)
4. and in a recent and specific context, Eric Monkkonen, "Homicide: Explaining America's Exceptionalism," American Historical Review 111 (February 2006): 76-94.
5. On the military aspect, see Andrew J. Bacevich, The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War (New York, 2005).
6. Emily Morison Beck, ed., Familiar Quotations...by John Bartlett, 14th ed. (Boston, 1968), 68.
7. Isaiah Berlin, The Hedgehog and the Fox: An Essay on Tolstoy's View of History (1953; reprint, New York, 1986), 1-2.
8. Louis Menand, "Everybody's an Expert: Putting Predictions to the Test," New Yorker, 5 December 2005, quote on p. 100.
9. The Louis Menand article is a review of Philip Tetlock's book, Expert Political Judgement: How Good Is It? How Can We Know? (Princeton, 2005).
10. Milo Milton Quaife, ed., The Diary of James K. Polk during His Presidency, 1845 to 1849 (Chicago, 1910), 1:398, (13 May 1846).
11. Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., "Eyeless in Iraq," New York Review of Books 50 (23 October 2003): 26.
12. Michiko Kakutani, "All the President's Books," New York Times, 11 May 2006, sec. E, p. 1, referring to Rebel in Chief by the pro-Bush Fred Barnes.
13. Quaife, ed., The Diary of James K. Polk, 1:126-7 (19 Dec. 1845).
14. Ron Suskind, The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O'Neill (New York, 2004).
15. Michael R. Gordon and Bernard E. Trainor, Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq (New York, 2006).
16. Congressional Globe, 30th Cong., 1st sess. (11 May 1846), 794-5.
17. See Scott Walsten, "The Economic Cost of the Iraq War," The Economists' Voice, vol. 2 issue 2, (2006), www.bepress.com/ev/vol3/iss2/art1 (accessed 16 March 2006)
18. and Joseph E. Stiglitz, "The High Cost of the Iraq War," The Economists' Voice, vol. 2, issue 3 (2006), www.bepress.com/ev/vol3/iss3/art5 (accessed 16 March 2006).
19. Quaife, ed., The Diary of James K. Polk, 3:495 (18 June 1847). ...In a discussion with Senators Sam Houston and Jefferson Davis, Polk declared "the old army of 15 regiments [15,000 men]... altogether sufficient," and objected "to the creation of a large standing army in time of peace."
20. U.S. Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970 (Washington D.C., 1975) II, 1104 (Series Y335, total public debt) and 1106 (Series Y352, total federal government receipts), 1114-5 (Series Y457-8), total outlays and War Department outlays.
21. Polk, Inaugural Address, 4 March 1845, in House Executive Documents 540, 82nd Cong., 2d Sess., 87-8.
22. Tim Golden, "Senior Lawyer At Pentagon Broke Ranks On Detainees," New York Times, 20 February 2006, sec. A, p. 8. See the dissent by Alberto J. Mora, former general counsel of the Navy, from the position of Secretary Rumsfeld and others.
23. T.H. Benton, Thirty Years' View; or, A History of the Working of the American Government...from 1820 to 1850... (New York, 1856), vol. 2, 710.
24. Robert J. Brugger, ed., The Papers of James Madison, Secretary of State Series (Charlottesville, 1987), vol. 19
25. (letter from R.R. Livingston to Madison, 20 May 1803).
26. Hall Jackson Kelley, A Geographical Sketch of That Part of North America Called Oregon... (Boston, 1830).
27. Charles Wilson Hackett, ed., Pichardo's Treatise on the Limits of Louisiana and Texas... vol. 1 (Austin, 1931-46), xix.
28. Richard Griswold del Castillo, The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: A Legacy of Conflict (Norman, 1990), 10-2.
29. Henry Steele Commager, Documents of American History (New York, 1973) 1:307:
30. citing U.S. Statutes at Large, V: 797-8.
31. This is basically also the position of Andrew Bacevich: "I tend not to buy into the charge that Bush and others blatantly lied us into this war. I think they believed most of what they claimed. You should probably put believe in quotes, because it amounts to talking yourself into it. They believed that American omnipotence, as well as know-how and determination, could imprint democracy on Iraq. They really believed that, once they succeed in Iraq, a whole host of ancillary benefits were going to ensue, transforming the political landscape of the Middle East. AU of those expectations were bizarre delusions...." Interview with Tom Engelhardt, originally on 〈tomdispatch.com〉, "a weblog of The Nation Institute, reproduced on History News Network, hnn.us/articles/25707.html (accessed 19 June 2006, 5).
32. House Exec. Doc. 540, 82nd Cong., 2d sess., 89.
33. Polk, Diary, vol. 2, 75 (10 August 1846)
34. and vol. 2, 289-90 (23 December 1846).
35. "Joint Resolution to Authorize the Use of United States Armed Forces Against Iraq," H.J. Res. 114, 107th Cong., 2d Sess., from White House website, www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/10/20021002-2.html. On 11 October 2002, the Senate approved this resolution by 77 to 23, and the House by 296 to 133.
36. "AP Staffer Fact-Checks Powell's UN Speech," editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=197I092 (accessed 9 September 2003).
37. "Powell Calls U.N. Speech a 'Blot' on His Record," by ABC News on AOL News website, aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id= 20050908231709990004 (accessed 9 September 2005).
38. Paul R. Pillar, "Intelligence, Policy, and the War in Iraq," Foreign Affairs, March/April 2006, pre-published on www.foreignaffairs.org/ 20060301faessay85202/paul-r-pillar/intelligence-policy- and-....
39. See also, The New York Times and Chicago Tribune, 11 February 2006. Pillar called the use of intelligence to justify the already-made decision an "upside-down relationship between intelligence and policy...a radical departure from the textbook model...in which an intelligence service responds to policymaker interest in certain subjects...and explores them in whatever direction the evidence leads."
40. "The National Security Strategy of the United States of America, September 2002," on White House website: www.whitehouse.gov/nsc/nss/2002.
41. Todd Gitlin, "America's Age of Empire: The Bush Doctrine," Mother Jones, Jan.-Feb. 2003, motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2003/01/ ma_205_01.html.
42. Thomas Donnelly, "Empire of Liberty: The Historical Underpinnings of the Bush Doctrine," www.aei.org/publications/pubid.22756/pub_detail.asp (accessed 24 June 2005).
43. Commager, Documents, vol. 1, 189.
44. Jefferson to Livingston, Washington, 18 April 1802.
45. Robin Wright, "Iraq Occupation Erodes Bush Doctrine," Washington Post, A01, www.washingtonpost.com/ac2wp-dyn/a10539-2004jun27? language=printer (accessed 28 June 2004).