At our monthly book discussion group we discussed Andrew Bacevich’s
book, The Short American Century: A
Postmortem [Harvard 2012]. Bacevich
and eight other essayists reflect on a central theme of American history—the
belief that we are an exceptional people brought across the Atlantic since the
1630s to establish a “city on a hill” whose lights would serve as a beacon for
the Puritans in America. That phrase was
offered in a sermon in 1630 by John Winthrop (1587-1649) a founder of the
Massachusetts Bay Colony. His writings
with that phrase were not published until the 1800s, but his phrase resonated
among the colonists and was absorbed by numerous American Presidents after the
Civil War. The chapters of this book
reveal how a combination of religious piety, laissez faire Capitalism,
sanctioned genocide and ethnic cleansing of Native Americans, a defense of
slavery, and a passion for Empire-building led to the growth of the United
States first from Ocean to Ocean and then through purchase and conquest, to
lands taken from Mexico, the Spanish, the Central American Republics, the
establishment of military bases around the world, and the use of military intervention
in wars of choice to maintain our self-image of spreading the American dream
around the world.
Henry Luce, in 1940 in Time
Magazine used the phrase “The American Century” to represent an American
dominance of the world through its military strength, its belief in exporting
democracy (as long it was pro-American), world trade (as long as it was
dominated by American economic interests), and world culture (as long as our publications,
popular music, mass produced foods, sports, and Hollywood films were favored
and admired). Instead of a century (with thirty more years to go to reach it),
the authors of these essays show that the American Century was a myth for us to
believe as self-gratifying. It was betrayed by our foreign policy, by our
military disasters in Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America. It was betrayed by our destruction of the
labor union movement and corporate greed leading to the death of American
manufacturing in the United States (replaced by using cheap labor overseas and
unregulated factories in developing countries).
It was betrayed by plunging into wars around the world when we were not
being under military threat except in the imaginations of political advisors
and candidates. It was betrayed by creation of secret agencies that carried out
killings of leaders who opposed US foreign policy. These actions, the authors claim, have made America
less secure, more divided, less respected (except through fear), and in a state
of economic contraction. Instead of
recognizing that there is no one country that can dominate 7 billion people
with different cultures and Americanize all 7 billion of them, we have kept
propping up “the city on the hill” as our vision of America. Both Democrats (Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt,
Johnson, Carter, Clinton, and Obama) and
Republicans (Theodore Roosevelt, Taft, Nixon, Reagan, and both Bushes) have
embraced “American exceptionalism” and it is taught in our public schools as an
American ideal we should favor. That
other people have a right to self-determination, different religions, different
cultures, and different needs is often repressed in favor of the self-deception
that we have a God-given right to do as we want whether we call it Manifest
Destiny, God’s grace, the American character, or the political equivalent to
Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” that guides our laissez faire capitalism. Bacevich pleads that we should abandon the
American exceptionalism mandate from our public policy.
the short American century: a postmortem
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