Christopher Nichols
Appearances
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
You're thinking your East Germanys, your Czechoslovakias, your Yugoslavias. A place where the next war could be fought. And also looks to Asia in the same way. And one problem for the Truman folks is that the Truman Democrats had a pretty good consensus foreign policy from 46 through 51 on Europe, but not on Asia.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
Both Eisenhower and Taft and many Republicans are saying, look, Truman lost China in 1949 when Mao's forces routed Chiang Kai-Shek and they fled to Taiwan. In 1949, that's when the Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb. This year, 1949, is a really pivotal moment and you see this divide. For Eisenhower, it's a worldwide possible security threat from Russia and communism.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
Für die Taft-Wing ist es primär Asien und lässt die Europäer auf ihrem eigenen Stand stehen, so gut sie können. Sie sind nicht dafür, sie auszuhalten, aber sie sind nicht dafür, viele Truppen zu stationieren, viel Geld zu sparen und definitiv nicht der Art von Blut-Tresor-Modell, den ich vorhin gesagt habe.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
Also, wenn er die Präsidentin Kolumbiens nimmt, was unerwartet war, sagt er, ich habe ein Hauptziel, das ich machen werde. Und wenn du mich nicht machen lässt, werde ich nicht den Job nehmen. Ich will die American Assembly starten. Ich will einen Denktank auf Internationalismus starten, der zu prämulieren und sorten für neue Formen von Internationalismus, US-Weltleitung, Ja. Ja.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
He is for this version of world leadership. And it's the sort of thing that the US is debating today and has, you know, really since the end of the Cold War, you know, how to balance domestic and foreign commitments and what actually advantages the nation in the world. And for him, it's so clear that alliances, partners,
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
US-Leadership, you know, the expenses will more than generate adequate benefits. And by pulling back, it simply creates a vacuum whereby you have, you know, what he was just involved in. He sees Nazi Germany, you know, fascist Italy and the Japanese Empire as the products of US removal from world leadership. And it's very clear that's his historical lesson.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
So he brings in John Foster Dulles, a Secretary of State, and the two of them outline one of the most important kind of nuclear strategies of the Cold War, mutually assured destruction. Mad. Everybody knows about it, right? All the listeners will. The idea is...
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
that through mutually assured destruction you can actually move towards eventually some disarmament programs, which you see in the Eisenhower years in his negotiations and several summits with Khrushchev after Stalin dies. Stalin dies immediately when he comes into office in 1953, which is important.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
And also important is that immediately at that point, Eisenhower has a very famous and important speech about the chance for peace. And it hinges for him on this sort of economic security dimension and also trying to prevent the nuclear cataclysm. So the mutually assured destruction doctrine requires more long-range bombers, more B-52s in the air, a robust plan to build more weapons.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
So by the time he leaves office, there's 20,000 nuclear weapons in the combined Russian and US nuclear arsenals. Yeah, submarine strategy, the whole thing. Submarine strategy, so it's what becomes the so-called trident of air, sea and undersea for the nuclear umbrella. You see the gaming out of a lot of different possibilities, including first strikes. This is in the policy planning.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
These are highly classified documents. One of the most famous ones of these was a National Security Council 162-163, which is under him, which is about building up the nuclear posture, but also emphasizing the kind of fiscal conservatism of that, because you don't need as much in the way of armed forces or that portion of the allocation of defense budgets if you're relying more on nuclear weapons.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
What he often would say, he would use euphemisms very frequently. I think what you're referring to here is the not taking them off the table kind of language. Yeah, yeah. It's pretty clear when you look at his personal papers, diaries, he found absolutely repugnant use of nuclear weapons and his particularly first use.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
Aber er hat für strategische Gründe, und eigentlich spricht Evan Thomas' Buch, Ike's Bluff, über das in Bezug auf den Kartenspieler, den Experten-Kartenspieler in ihm. Für strategische Gründe hat er regelmäßig Euphemismen für den Nutzung von atomischen nuklearen Waffen benutzt.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
In dem Sinne, dass er hoffte, dass diese Bewertung deshalb mehr Kapazität für die USA geben würde, um andere Aspekte des Wohlwollens zu negotieren, Sicherheitsentwürfe oder Demobilisierung, diese Art von Dingen. So the short answer is yes. And the long answer is highly, highly unlikely that Ike would have authorized the use of nuclear weapons.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
Ja, es passierte auf seiner Warte, könnte man sagen. Ich denke, die technologischen Entwicklungen seiner Zeit, die Hydrogenbombe, die dann in Bezug auf beide die Sowjetunion und die USA mit rund 800-mal der zerstörten Macht der Waffen, die Hiroshima und Nagasaki gedroht haben, haben nur bedeutet, dass es ihm offensichtlich war,
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
dass eine große Anwendung von nuklearen Waffen den Planeten virtually unvergesslich machen würde. Und niemand könnte die Sieg beurteilen.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
Wenn man sich einige dieser Politikplanungs-Memos anschaut, die zeigen, wie die erste Strecke aussehen würde, weißt du, dass die 10% der Bevölkerung nicht wirklich die Sieg fühlen würde, besonders jemand wie Ike, der die größte amphibische Invasion in der Weltgeschichte gestartet hat. Und er wollte nicht, dass er Kasualitätskonten sieht. Er hätte es nie mit 90% Kasualitätskonten erlaubt.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
Das ist ein großer Teil davon. Es gibt auch diesen Element, der in diesem Moment arbeitet. Du hast seine Religiosität erwähnt. John Foster Dulles war ein Ekumenist, ein sehr tiefer Glaubwürdiger. Es gibt einen Moment, in dem der Koldauer in den USA als eine Art judeo-christliche Art von Sensibilität gewählt wird.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
Und es gibt eine echte Debatte über die Moral der Droppung der Bombe am Ende der Zweiten Weltkriege. Und das entfaltet viele der öffentlichen Gespräche in diesem Zeitpunkt. Ich praise with Billy Graham, who was in favor of possible US first use because the US was a more morally righteous country.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
But nevertheless, there's the kind of moral and ethical set of concerns inflects a lot of how this administration, the Eisenhower administration, thought about nuclear strategy, thought about military strategy, and therefore made them somewhat more circumspect than a kind of secular, strategic, hyper-rational logic might have, you think.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
Yep, yeah, so the Taiwan Strait, there's two moments of Taiwan Strait significant tension under Eisenhower. in den frühen 50ern, nicht lange nachdem er im Büro war, 54, 55 und dann 58. An beiden Zeiten betet er ein Sicherheitsvermögen. Er sieht es, wie wir es viel darüber gesprochen haben, du verletzt nicht deine Alliierten. Diese waren die Alliierten der USA in der Krieg.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
Diese sind die Alliierten der USA, die aus der Krieg rauskommen. Und diese Betrugung sollte halten. Eisenhower ist der letzte Präsident, der im 19. Jahrhundert geboren wurde. Er ist der höchste Kommandant General, seit Ulysses S. Grant, um die Präsidentschaft zu halten.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
And he has this kind of moral commitment, upright 19th century kind of Victorian sensibility about you don't go back on your word sort of thing. Right. So he's you know, if you think about some of the arguments later in the Cold War, even about a kind of more transactional sense of supporting dictators and that sort of thing.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
For him, it's it's it's as simple as the US gave its word to support the territorial integrity of Taiwan as they fled mainland China. And that's it. That's the story, including nuclear security. Right.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
Absolut. You know, I think many presidencies cast in sharp belief the domestic-foreign divide. And this is a particularly good one, the Eisenhower years, because of actually the opposite, the connection between foreign and domestic. The Cold War really helps to generate the conditions for... Ja. Ja.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
Er hat ein paar Vorteile für den Zivilrechts-Movement und für Ike, aber in Bezug auf seine Posterität, macht er ihn nicht wirklich gut aus. Es macht ihn nicht wirklich schlecht aus, aber diese Verbindung zwischen dem Domestik und dem Ausland ist wirklich wichtig. Man kann über Infrastruktur denken, man kann über das Straßensystem denken. Es gibt viele Erfolge auf seinem Wagen.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
Er hält den höchsten Tax-Bracket, 91%. Ich denke, er ist der letzte Republikaner, der ein balanced Budget in 1956 hatte. There's a lot to say about his domestic politics. And he does all that in just the first few years, because then Congress shifts and he doesn't have the same ability to manipulate things through Republicans, but he works bipartisanly.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
So he actually in some ways has an easier time with Democrats on foreign policy than he does on Republicans, because the Taft-Wing, while they're slowly, literally dying out – Taft died in 1953 – Mm-hmm.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
How are they related? So they are intimately and integrally related. And I think it's really important for people to consider this. So the Brown decision in 1954 actually has a State Department amicus brief filed as part of it. This is rare. Don't take my word for it. Go read some con law.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
It's rare and it's highly significant because the State Department and the wings of US government more broadly are trying to wage the Cold War abroad. And the Soviet communism, Soviet propaganda is beating back the US in the third world, the developing world, because they can say definitively with terrible photos and brief captions and stories. You don't even need to know the languages. Ja, genau.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
If you go slightly beyond Brown, if you think about Little Rock, one of the reasons that Eisenhower doesn't want to succumb to Orville Faubus and those in Arkansas stopping people from going into the school is because of the optics, that it looks so bad to have these so-called obstructionists, as he put it in his speech bringing in the 101st Airborne, that this moment of domestic and foreign
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
Das ist wirklich essentiell. Und die Koldwars auch. Also es ist der Staatsdepartement Amicus Brief, die Brown-Decision, die Optik, die schrecklichen Bilder. Alles, was wir von dem Zivilrechtsmovement kennen. Denk an Feuerhosen und Hunde, richtig? Das ist in Frankreich, das ist in Algerien, das ist in Brasilien, das ist in Argentinien, das ist in Nord- und Südkorea.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
Es sieht nicht gut aus für die USA. Und der andere Teil der Geschichte ist, und es gibt unglaubliche Elemente davon. Foreign diplomats coming to the US come to segregated Washington DC and segregated Northern Virginia. And as they travel to New York, to the UN, they get stopped. They can't eat at the same restaurants. These are heads of state of other countries.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
You think about what recently happened with Zelensky coming to the White House and being berated. Now imagine hundreds and hundreds of times of that. Low-level diplomats and high-level heads of state. It's terrible on the world stage for diplomacy. So even those who are really lukewarm on civil rights in both parties are saying, you know, we at least need to sweep this under the rug.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
That's hardly altruistic and wonderful, but that is where they're landing more and more because of the Cold War.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
Don, ich denke, du weißt die Antwort auf diese Frage. Nein. Also, an der Konvention im Sommer 1952, um die Delegate aus Kalifornien zu sichern, macht die Eich-Team zwei basic deals. A little known, but rising anti-communist by the name of Richard Nixon will become the Vice President.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
And then a famous governor and beloved son of the state of California, Earl Warren, will get the next Supreme Court opening. Did not know it would be the Chief Justice. And there are some very good little asides that you get in handwritten notes that Ike wasn't particularly happy that it went that direction, but didn't know could not possibly know what decisions would come under the Warren Court.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
But of the really fascinating counterfactuals of this moment, if Ike hadn't won, you wouldn't have Nixon in the same way. You wouldn't have the Warren Court in the same way. You might have had a Taft presidency and a MacArthur vice presidency and Taft died in 53.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
I mean, it's just really this inflection point of 1952 and the way that the Cold War is waged domestically and internationally under Eisenhower It's fascinating and critically important to understand this moment because it shapes really the next several generations.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
Er ist wirklich schlecht in der Politik verpflichtet, ehrlich gesagt. Wenn man sich seine Anwälte und Anwälte in der Kampagne 52 anschaut, die versuchen, mehr Informationen zu bekommen. Er hat sich nicht auf Politik und Politik konzentriert. Internationale Sicherheitsfragen, ökonomische Hilfe im Ausland, das ist sein Bailiwick. So civil rights questions weren't really on his horizon.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
And he had a kind of naive sense that the American people would do the right thing, that in the end that it would sort itself out. And so ignominiously, one of the things he says after the Brown decision in 54 to desegregate the schools is that it might have set back, quote, race relations up to 15 years. That's his quick take on what's going on.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
And then he slowly sees what's called massive resistance in the South. Lots of Southern states, Southern leaders come together and they reject the Supreme Court's edict. So in 1955, you get so-called Brown Decision 2, which says that segregation in the public schools must be ended and desegregation and integration happen with, quote, all deliberate speed.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
So it's 55, then also you see Rosa Parks, the Montgomery Bus Boycotts, Martin Luther King Jr. Some of these folks are now coming to the White House. Ike is open to having major black leaders in the civil rights movement come to the White House. And then it's 57 that you see this really stark blast of states' rights absolutism in the face of the Supreme Court.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
Und für Eisenhower, er bewegt sich langsam, hofft, dass die Figuren in der Stadt von Arkansas, also grundsätzlich die Zentralhochschule dort, gesagt hat, dass es desegregieren muss. Orval Faubus, der Gouverneur, bringt in den Nationalguards oder seine eigenen Nationalguards-Truppen und forciert die Kinder aus, die die Schule desegregieren sollen, indem sie sich in die Schule integrieren.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
Obstructionist-Mobben, viele von euch, die das hören, haben wahrscheinlich Fotos davon gesehen, die auf die Studenten schreien, sie weinen in ihren Füßen, es ist ziemlich schrecklich, was du siehst. Eisenhower wird immer mehr entsetzt und langsam, aber sicherlich, er ist eigentlich auf Verabschiedung in Newport, Rhode Island. Vielen Dank. Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020 Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
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American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020 Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
Untertitelung. BR 2018 Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020 Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020 Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020 Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020 Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020 Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020 Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
You know, on the one hand, it's absolutely fair.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
If you think about the economy, standard of living, coming out of a cataclysmic world war, higher education boom, more people being educated, more jobs, job growth, manufacturing in the US, the white picket fence, suburbia, you could own your own home, the automobile, you could have your oddly colored high expense every month automobile, new appliances in the home, right?
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020 Vielen Dank.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
The parts of the cold war were waged over the so-called kitchen debates. Khrushchev und Nixon. Also ja, auf der einen Seite. Und auf der anderen Seite denke ich, dass die frühere Koldauer, die Nachfolge der Zweiten Weltkriege, einige der echten Fehler in der amerikanischen Demokratie in starker Relief verursacht hat.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
Und in der Versuchung, diesen Konflikt im Ausland durch Propaganda zu kämpfen, beobachtete, wie wirklich just die amerikanische Gesellschaft war und wie viel von ihren demokratischen Idealen sie lebte. In dieser Weise kam dann die Koldauer zurück. Es gab einen Rebound-Effekt. Vielen Dank.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
Das ist eine tolle Frage. Danke, dass du in diese Richtung gehst. Also, du weißt, das Kontrafaktuelle, das wir oft haben, oder die Art und Weise, wie wir über die Eisenhower-Präsidentin denken, ist, dass es eine vorgegangene Schlussfolgerung war. Wenn du zurückgehst zu diesem nostalgischen Moment, natürlich Ike. Wir alle lieben Ike. Ike bringt Demokraten und Republikaner zusammen.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
Er macht den Straßenweg-System. Er ist Teil des Zivilrechts-Movements, was auch immer du denkst oder das verstehst. Das könnte nicht weiter von der Wahrheit in 1948 oder 1952 gehen. Der mögliche Frontrunner für die Republikanische Partei war der Herr Republikaner Robert Taft, Sohn des ehemaligen Präsidenten, Ohio-Senator.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
Er hat 1950 eine erstaunliche Sieg in Ohio gewonnen für seine Kampagne im Senat, die ansehnte, dass er alle Donner und andere Dinge aufgeräumt hatte, um einen wirklich seriösen Rund für die Präsidentschaft zu machen. Und in Wahrheit ist Taft der Feuille, weshalb Eisenhower es in erster Linie darstellt. Taft und so genannte Taft-Republikaner sind gegen NATO, gegen die UN.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
Sie mögen nicht, dass die USA in Europa permanent Basen haben. Sie sind für eine politische Hockerung in Asien. Sie sind so genannte Asien-Förster, die aus der 2. Weltkriege gekommen sind. Und die Eich-Folgen, Eisenhower trifft mit Taft im Jahr 1951. Und dann, nachdem er endlich die Nominierung im Jahr 1952 bekommt,
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
The Ike folks were focused on a kind of internationalism and international leadership that we tend to associate with the U.S. role in the Cold War. The U.S. taking a leadership role, being ready to put its blood and treasure on the line. And that was not popular with the base of the Republican Party. Had Ike not won, I think you can say pretty unequivocally, Taft would have won in 1952.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
Democrats were so unpopular in that moment.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
Er ist ein absoluter Fan des Marshall-Plans. Er ist für die Reconstruktion in Europa. Er hat eine Art Wirtschafts-Sicherheits-Vision, die manchmal von Konservativen als Stomach-Theorie genannt wurde, wie die Welt nach der Zweiten Weltkriege wieder aufgebaut werden sollte.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
Und die Stomach-Theorie hat im Grunde genommen, und wir hören das bis zu seinem Aufruf, den ich hoffe, wir sprechen darüber am Ende hier, that the way to peace and prosperity in the world was to have people's stomachs full, to have them have employment and food and vibrant economies. And so Marshall Plan is a huge part of that, getting the West of Europe, but even all of Europe.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
He was for extending it to the Soviet Union until they rejected it, although he did not take very strong political stances. So, you know, if I say this sort of thing that sounds declarative, it's because we know it from his papers, his personal papers, what he says after the fact. The most important thing to know about Ike before 52, Ja, genau. He's for that.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
He's for committing significant numbers of divisions to Europe. There's some debate going back and forth. George Marshall indicates no more than four. He's willing to have more. The challenge in the late 40s into the early 50s, once the Korean War starts in the late 50s, is trying to figure out as well, what if that is a feint by the Russians?
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
And then they're headed towards a poorly equipped, poorly defended Europe. And the US has to backstop that, is the thinking of people like Eisenhower. Die Sache mit Leuten wie Taft ist, wenn sie sich nicht verteidigen können, muss die USA ihre Art von Fortress-Amerika haben. Es ist Gibraltar, Rock of Gibraltar-Amerika, wie Herbert Hoover es gesagt hat.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
Und dann ist NATO eine andere Ausstattung davon. Und das ist ein wichtiger Punkt. Also wenn du dich über die Marshall Plan denkst, die ökonomische Veränderung. Die US-Divisionen dort sind theoretisch eine temporäre Teilnahme davon. Und dann die Nordatlantik-Treaty-Organisation, die 1949 gegründet wurde, ist die andere Teilnahme, richtig?
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
Und es ist eine Bindungs-Sicherheits-Vorgabe, die absolut garantiert wird, dass die Gerechtigkeit der Mitglieder der Nationenstaaten und alle anderen Mitglieder der Nationenstaaten agree to support anyone who is attacked, right? So that's critical in collective security. And that, again, is the kind of thing that the farther right conservatives coming out of World War II don't want.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
They say this is precisely the sort of thing that would get us into a war against American interests. And the counterpoint from most Democrats and the moderate Republican wing is this is exactly how you prevent the next world war.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
Yeah, so Truman famously later says he never said this, but we have good records to indicate that he said that he would help Ike get any office that he held, including the presidency, and that's before the election in 1948. It's pretty clear that both parties had their eyes on Eisenhower. Ja, genau. Henry Caballage Jr. from Massachusetts helps run this draft Ike campaign.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
And he's the one who famously says and really importantly says that Ike is a Republican and that Ike will accept the nomination. This is in January 52, if he gets it. But throughout this process, throughout this period, you can look through the Eisenhower letters. It's really fascinating. He keeps disavowing an interest in politics. He says that he has no interest in holding the highest office.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
And he actually seems to think that after turning down the possibility of running in 48, he's done. And that he thinks that because of the relative age of the folks who might have won. He thinks that if there had been a Dewey presidency in 48, for instance, Dewey would have run. He was a Republican, Thomas Dewey from New York, would have run twice.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
And after eight years, I couldn't possibly run again in, say, 56. But what happens is the unexpected. Truman wins again in 1948. And Ike sees the counterpoint of the Taft and more conservative Republicans. And this is where the rubber hits the road. This is the time for the conservative Republicans who have now said, you've had your chance, moderates. You've lost again and again.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
You've lost to FDR. Now you've lost to Truman. You've lost to Truman at a point where he was so unpopular. You know, people joke things like a cow could win against him, right? Farm animals could beat him, but Dewey couldn't, right? And so Taft says, look, I'm the real inheritor of authentic sort of Americanist Republicanism going back to the sort of the Taft, McKinley, Roosevelt era.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
And he's pushing that forward. And he's remarkably similar, in fact. to Eisenhower on his domestic policies. But so how is politics in this moment? Republican Party is riven. The Democratic Party is reeling. The writing on the wall in terms of surveys is that there's just no chance that Democrats are going to win the highest office in 52.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
And in fact, as you play this out further, it looks very likely that Republicans are going to get both houses of Congress, which they do.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
Yeah, so the point counterpoint that's interesting in this moment is the Taft and the sort of more thoughtful or the right Republicans think that the communist threat is primarily in Asia. And that Soviet communism is less likely to expand through Europe than the kind of proponents of big militarist US are articulating.
American History Hit
President Eisenhower: War on Soviets & Segregation
And the primary challenges for the US therefore would be fiscal conservatism and not spending outside of its means. The Eisenhower version is that there is a legitimate communist threat in Eastern Europe. And he looks to the satellites and the places where the governments changed after the Second World War and notes that that's a highly contested area.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
You know, the media did not cause this conflict, but certainly part of fanning the flames.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
Yes, yes. So let's run through that. So there's this publication in the Yellow Press of something called the DeLome letter. Enrique de Play DeLome, the minister, the Spanish minister to the U.S., had said in this private letter that That McKinley was a bitter to the crowd and a weak man. And that started to upset folks in February of 1898.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
Obviously, McKinley, it made him less interested in negotiating. Then you have the main. There's a rapid push. So that's within a week. You have the main explosion just by mid-February. Into March, then, it looks like there could be a war declaration in March. And what McKinley is trying to do through arbitration is to have a ceasefire, essentially. Mm-hmm.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
And to have the Spanish stop the reconcentration policies, which they agree to, and have some level of home rule, which they agree to, but it's unclear what the shape of that is going to be because they still want to rule the island of Cuba. Sugar there is incredibly lucrative. And there's a lot of attempts to sort of save face in these negotiations.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
The Spanish don't want to give up their empire at the end of the day. That's a critical juncture here. And another piece of this is that there have been revolutions in Spain in the 1820s. Lots of those folks left. They fled to places like Cuba, and they fear another revolution in Spain.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
Arguably, because they lose this conflict, the next revolution in Spain doesn't happen until the 1930s, as we know. But there was incredible tumult in the Spanish government, too, and that's part of the problem here. Who's the U.S. negotiating with? Who's running the military, the Navy?
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
So you have in the Philippines, for instance, there's a sense that more ships and more troops will be sent to save a beleaguered and besieged garrison in Manila and that no one ever sent. And in fact, they changed the leadership several times there. I mean, it's a deeply problematic set of diplomacy and military strategy from the Spanish side.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
But McKinley is trying to negotiate some conclusion short of war that will help Cubans and not get the U.S. into a conflict.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
So I just grabbed the key section to it, and it says, Interesting. Wow. That's a big deal, especially for the 20th century, isn't it? Exactly. At that key moment of engaging in the conflict.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
Well, one, in that sense, the U.S. reserve no right pushed no anti-imperialist goals there in the Philippines. But another element of that is that, frankly, the U.S. policymakers did not anticipate annexing or having a protectorate status over the Philippines. Famously, McKinley is said to not have known where the Philippines were on a map.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
There's a great account, it's probably apocryphal, it's after his assassination, it comes out, but that McKinley dropped to his knees and prayed to God to figure out what he should do with the Philippines. Should they be annexed? Should they be saved? Could they be thrown back out for recolonization by another European power?
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
And his conclusion was the US had to take it because of the strategic concerns and because of the sort of Christian mission dimensions of the importance of the US in the Philippines.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
Yes. And so that's, as I said, it's part of the naval planning in case of likely hostilities with the Spanish. So that's what was activated there. And of course, you know, some of the contemporaries call it a grab bag fleet that the Spanish have. Lots of wooden vessels, very easily sunk, not well trained. Mm-hmm. But it's an enormous fleet.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
And one thing that's interesting in that moment is that German, British and other vessels are there on the horizon watching to see how this will unfold. And if you had been a betting, say, European navalist in 1898, you would not have bet that the U.S. would so readily dispatch the entire Spanish fleet, even though they were there forever. essentially at harbor. And this was a surprise.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
And if you're thinking about the big takeaways of this conflict, the US has now fought and won a war with Spain. And the US is a legitimate rising power, even if the Spanish were a waning power, not a great military power. But yes, so this takes Dewey by surprise. It takes European observers by surprise. Now they have to figure out, well, okay, how do we get troops to the Philippines, right?
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
So they only have the Navy there. They don't have, they have a handful of Marines to bring on shore and that's it. So they have to figure out how to ship out and mobilize from San Francisco enough troops to take at least the city of Manila.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
And then the thinking in that moment is, okay, we want the deep, the US thinking is, we want the deep water harbor at Manila for trade and probably not none of the other you know, hundreds and hundreds of islands across the Philippines. And that rapidly changes just in the course of this year, as you're saying.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
Yes. Yes. You know, I'm so glad that you brought that up. You know, we think about these this sort of conflict as some antiquated moment in world and military history. But here you see a kind of strategic conflict. military operation for undersea cable cutting. Look, Edison, this is taped. This is filmed.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
You can see at the National Archives, there's Edison's footage of actual US troops disembarking. So this is a filmed conflict. It's one that relies on transatlantic and transpacific telegraphy. Another way to think about this too is McKinley has a war room set up in the White House. It's the first time that a president has real-time information about a conflict.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
He's getting information, sending out communicators as a commander in chief in this kind of thing we think of today.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
They have to cut the communications because they want to wage a series of surprise attacks. And one of the attempts here by the U.S. military is to not allow the Spanish to regroup in one central place on the island of Cuba, but rather keep them isolated. They're essentially guarding a bunch of different cities on the coast.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
They've ceded most of the interior territory to the revolutionaries at this point.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
Yeah, Pershing eventually holds the highest command until Eisenhower in U.S. military history. Exactly. You know, Pershing famously says in the Battle of San Juan Hill, this is the Rough Riders moment and all that, that it was this sort of glorious moment at the top of the hill where all these different units, you know, in a rough shod, not particularly – well-planned out manner all mingle.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
And you see Buffalo soldiers and Rough Riders who are volunteers and regular military and sort of new conscript types, new draftee types. There isn't a draft in this moment, but people who just leapt up and decided to take up arms, but joined the army. And so you had seasoned folks who'd been in the Indian Wars and much older officer corps, some of whom were in the Civil War.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
So it's this fascinating polyglot. And for someone like Pershing, it tells you, what the U.S. military, what the U.S. society is capable of in a kind of pluralistic sense, to use a contemporary language. But also for many of those in that moment, it gives a sense of how problematic this decentralized kind of command could be, that you have a lot of improvisation and
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
You know, there's a moment in this. I mean, I don't know if you want to go through the blow by blow, but there's a moment in this where Teddy Roosevelt decides to head off because he sees another battle with about five of his soldiers and winds up depleting their ability to do anything. And they have to be saved.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
There's a couple different accounts of whether or not, you know, it was one guy with a Gatling gun who saved them or whether or not they were just really drained from charging up and down hills for a while and ravines. So there's a whole lot of this kind of thing.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
So they're charging up the Battle of San Juan Hill, we should just say the obvious, right into Spanish fire, downward fire from the geographic heights. Not exactly, you know, certainly there's glory in facing that, but not exactly the kind of strategy that a Persian type would want.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
You know, there's no doubt the U.S. in this period, the 1880s, 1890s, was spoiling for a war. That it was the Spanish took some by surprise because in that era, you know, many of the American politicians who were agitating for conflict, for the U.S. 's growth as a military power, a larger navy, they were looking to countries like Germany who were more of a peer rising power.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
Yes, for sure. And so, you know, one question here is in terms of armaments, the U.S. are using these KRAG, K-R-A-G rifles. They're not as fast repeating and not as reliable as what the Spanish have, for instance. There's the mobilization problem. There's incredible problems with food and canned food. Then, obviously, we talked about the disease.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
They're mustering in Florida in swamps, essentially. It's really horrible. The letters of Teddy Roosevelt, he's pleading and trying to get better food sent to his guys, actually paying out of pocket in some cases. Same with some of the other military commanders. He wanted a commission in the army. He winds up going this route for a variety of reasons.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
And actually, one of the other consequences here is he asked for the exact same thing again in World War I. He wants to be commissioned into the army or to put together a Rough Rider type regiment. But I think the bigger picture is you're right. So when the troops are actually in the field, some of these engagements, while they're not as –
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
strategically thought out as one might want in the sense of charging uphill. The U.S. military performs very well despite all these many myriad problems. And the Spanish don't. So another piece of this that you see in the reporting in the moment, the Spanish military, they have lots of regulars there, but many have been fighting this revolution for years.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
The latest one just starting in 1895, but those were there. And then they've got a lot of conscripts. And these conscripts are ready to put up the white flag. Sure. pretty regularly.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
This is great, and I'm so glad that you brought this up. We've talked through Cuba. There's a series of these engagements, mostly centering around cities. The U.S. military performs pretty well. The Spanish hold out in the Philippines. There's really just one area left for Spanish hold in Manila. It's this area, the intramuros, the heavily fortified interior of Manila, Manila Bay.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
And they're surrounded by Philippine revolutionaries, the Spanish there. And there's some issues with their leadership. Very rapidly with Dewey there, they're negotiating a separate peace with the Americans. They do not want to surrender to the Filipinos, right? Underscore that. The same thing is true for the Spanish in Cuba. They do not want to surrender to what they see as these insurgents.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
And there's heavily racialized racist language about this, right? They see them as little brown brothers or as no better than boys in the street, even though we're talking about some of the leadership are... great intellectuals and actually often have mixed heritage with Spanish.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
There's a note that I found in the Teddy Roosevelt papers, for instance, where he said he'll take a war with Spain, but what he wanted was a war with Germany. Wow. But really, you know, conflict with Spain over Cuba stretches back to Thomas Jefferson's time. There were attempts to buy the island. There were attempts to seize the island.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
In any case, the mock battle is this attempt by the leadership there in negotiations with Dewey's camp, then two different leaders of the Spanish and an army general by the name of Wesley Merritt. who brings in a lot of the San Francisco-based troops that we were talking about earlier.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
And on the morning of August 13th, they have this mock battle where the British vessel fires off some initial salvos, and then their band plays some music. Dewey fires on the oldest fort that the Spanish are very happy to have destroyed. And through some heavily orchestrated retreats and pushes forward with very few casualties, suddenly the Americans are into the intramuros.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
Those fortifications have been knocked down. And the Filipinos are looking at this and saying, oh, we see that this is a mock. We see this was not actually a conflict. We see what has happened here. Now Americans have taken... Taking their glory, essentially. And it sets up very well what's the next step in February of 1899 when the Americans turn those guns on the Filipinos and vice versa.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
That's absolutely right. Yes. Yeah. And they are essentially defeated anyway. They're in this tiny place for about 10,000 people. 70,000 are there and they can't hold out that much longer. The Filipinos have turned off the water. So they need to move rapidly. And so it is face saving for sure.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
In the main intermediary, it's really a fascinating little thing that the Belgian envoy is going back and forth between the Americans and the Spanish to try to figure out how to make this mock thing work. And there are some casualties because they hold very tightly the secret of the mock And so the American troops do fire on Spaniards and kill a bunch of them.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
And then there's some counter fire and one battery, one artillery battery didn't get the word. And they're desperately trying to get the word to them to stop firing. So there are some casualties in this moment. But generally speaking, they're able to pull off this mock battle, which then signs over the Philippines to the U.S.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
And Spanish colonialism and Spain on the border had been a security threat for the U.S. for most of its history.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
Yeah, you know, there's bitter disappointment, a sense that the government failed across the board, but it's a turning point. So as I was saying, look, Spain is roiled with possible revolution. It looks like another civil war could happen.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
After this moment, there's a kind of reconsolidation of power and culture and an effort to build a kind of Spanish cultural social movement that galvanizes people in the ways that we tend to think of the arts of the early 20th century. It is a turning point for the country.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
They're giving up on, you could argue, sort of the last vestiges of an empire that they couldn't really control, that wasn't helpful to them, that was an albatross around their neck in terms of total cost and bases and all this kind of stuff, right? Yes. It comes at this inflection point, which is no doubt a catastrophe for the country as well. So, you know, it's a little of both there.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
Oh, I love it. Yeah, you know, one reason for that, too, is that the troops refused to wear some of the gear because it was too heavy.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
They didn't have tropical uniforms, so they refused. They stayed at boxed. I wonder if that's true for some of the other goods that the Army, Navy stores in surplus. Oh, God, you could buy anything.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
100 percent. Yes. You know, this is the first war to defeat European power other than the British. It comes at a pivotal moment in the U.S. 's rise to world power, commercial and cultural engagement with the world, military power. This is a fundamental altering of the political and diplomatic mix of how Americans think about their role in the world. The question after this is, should the U.S.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
play a leadership role in the world and what should that leadership role look like? It sets the stage for the U.S. 's entry into World War I, although that takes a long time as well. The long tail of this, however, is one to continue thinking about. Some of the elements of unity are also of a piece with disunity. There's the Anti-Imperialist League that brings together Mark Twain and W.E.B.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
Du Bois and Jane Addams and Andrew Carnegie, that Americans don't like the idea of ruling, quote, alien people against their will. This is the last of the annexations that the US has. So there's this burst of annexations, but then there's a real pushback, this countervailing force in American society. Was this worth it? What does it mean to have a humanitarian intervention?
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
The early 20th century is full of these questions as the U.S. sends Marines to customs houses all across the Caribbean. You get a Roosevelt corollary where the U.S. can now intervene more. The addendum to the Teller Amendment is the Platt Amendment, which is why the U.S. has this sacrosanct right to Guantanamo Bay, which is still with the U.S.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
today, still holding detainees from the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, for instance. So the long tail is right up to our current moment.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
It develops and evolves pretty organically here in this moment, 1890s into the 1900s. There isn't a cohesive sense, if you look at the records of policymakers, presidents McKinley and Roosevelt and others, that there's a vision, that there's a known sort of colonization strategy. And one piece of evidence for this is there's no consensus on what the people who are ruled will look like or be like.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
In other words, are these territories like the other territories, like Ohio was back in the Northwest Ordinance days, or Hawaii is in that moment when it becomes a territory? There isn't a sense if Filipinos are going to become American citizens or not, or for that matter, Puerto Ricans.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
And it's not until 1917 that there's a clarification of the citizenship status of those in Puerto Rico, for instance. And so, you know, this is halting steps of empire. It absolutely is empire and colonial empire. You have an insular kind of office in the way that the British did running these places and governors. But it's an open question as to what the sort of shape of this empire will take.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
And Americans from citizens who oppose it or don't even notice it to the politicians are slowly building a set of questions and expectations of this. And I think that's why your point is such a good one about, you know, the U.S. holds a kind of protectorate status over the Philippines until 1946. After World War II.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
And one of my arguments always is not a single person annexing the Philippines in 1898 thought that that would be the case.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
I think that's right. The other critical sensibility about othering in the 1890s and turn of the 20th century is this sort of white man's burden element. This concept of Anglo-Saxonism was everywhere.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
They did, yeah. You know, there's a couple elements there. Americans today absolutely didn't and don't understand that. You know, the long history of Cuban revolution against the occupation by the Spanish. I mean, think about this. It goes back to 1492, right? Yeah. So just in the 19th century, there were something like five major revolutions.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
And then it divided very unevenly across people who thought that those who were ruled, those alien or other people, had self-capacity for government and could be, say, great American citizens in the future at some point, and those who thought that they were subjects And that this was some new form of ruling people, you know, because that sort of Anglo-Saxon empires or in the U.S.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
case, you know, Republican empire knew better. And, you know, in some ways that sticks with the sort of political rhetoric for the rest of the century. This othering, you know, may not be as repugnant as the Anglo-Saxon racism of the turn of the 20th century. But you get this othering of people as if they're not present when there's an intervention or they're less important.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
And American observers in the 1890s and 1898 were looking at a revolution that really the next one that began in 1895 with very famous sort of intellectuals from Cuba generating interest, generating enthusiasm, and most importantly, sympathy and empathy from Americans. People like Jose Marti, very famous thinker who was killed when he comes back from exile in 1895 from the U.S.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
to be part of the revolution to help lead it. And so Americans are deeply sympathetic in thinking about the kind of ravages that the Spanish are placing onto the Cuban people. They have these policies, reconcentrado policies, concentration camps. Hundreds of thousands of Cubans are dying in the 1890s in these camps. American politicians go and observe them.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
The yellow press, of course, is a huge part of this moment. And they're sensationalizing what's going on in very vivid terms with political cartoons, and particularly in terms of a kind of concept of manhood in this period where, you know, for the U.S.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
to be a good sort of Uncle Sam male protector in the hemisphere, you see all these images of a feminized Cuba being ravaged by these horrible, you know, Spaniards and often depicted in deeply racialized and problematic ways. And it resonates with Americans. It resonates with American politicians who arguably didn't want to be in a war with Spain despite what Teddy Roosevelt said.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
And McKinley administration does try arbitration and other things. But their hand is forced in some ways by the public perceptions about how bad Spanish rule was.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
Yeah, you're so right. You know, Don, go back again to Jefferson. In one sense, there's this concept that he uses the phrase Empire of Liberty about 1780 as the U.S. is expanding across the hemisphere, kind of the continent first, you know, that there would be this kind of set of proactive, strong, robust foreign policies that would ensue after the U.S.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
got a sufficient amount of strength to push a kind of Republican empire out there throughout the hemisphere. By the end of the century, by the end of the – in the 1880s and 1890s, Americans are looking around the world at the French, at the Spanish, particularly at the British empires and thinking, okay, we can do that.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
And there's kind of a term that you see in some of the popular press at the time that the U.S. could be a better imperial ruler than the British. We could be a better – the U.S., they would say, you know, we could do this better. We could be more republican. We wouldn't be a monarchy. We would, you know – Help the peoples of these countries.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
And then there's a huge divide of these about whether or not there's capacity for self-rule amongst Cubans or Filipinos in particular. And that's a huge sticking point in the anti-imperialist leagues debates starting at the end of 1898 and moving into the early 1900s.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
Yes. Yeah. In the founding generation, you can find some really interesting sort of strategic thought about the problem of Cuba if it's Spanish. And if it's independent, the U.S. didn't have a worry. And the problems related to other islands and other bordering countries.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
And then, you know, the other element of this, though, isn't just the sort of defensive or strategic piece of this, but it's the offensive projection of power if you want to go there. or commercial and cultural dimensions, right? So the Americans are thinking about getting these bases in the Pacific to reach the Asian markets, to reach China. But there's certainly an enormous amount of sympathy.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
You could argue that the War of 1898 is the first US humanitarian intervention. And it's the first thing in McKinley's war address in April 1898. It's this critical juncture for Americans sort of putting their blood and treasure where their mouths are about having some sympathy for other peoples and groups who are being ruled against their will and suffering and who want democracy.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
and then stepping up. But of course, then the US holds Cuba as a protector for a few years, and there's a lot more to that story, which we'll get into, I'm sure. But there is the empire piece too, right? And so you have to hold the two sort of like a double helix of DNA that they're wrapped around each other.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
There's the humanitarian impulse and the generosity, and then there's the empire and the world stage and world power. Did we have any colonies at the time? I forget. No, not officially. No, this is the first foray into colonies. Although there were guano islands and guano access that the US had the ability to take and use, but not colonies in that sense.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
Yes. And again, this goes back several generations. The sort of founders were thinking that the U.S. would need to be part of that Isthmian Canal and that in order to control access to it and the importance of naval routes, you had to have some of these islands and deep water ports.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
And so that logic from the early 19th century holds in 1898 and is very much a part of the thinking moving forward into the next century.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
It is. On the one hand, the U.S. is able to project power in multiple domains across the world in what has to be understood as a global conflict. At the same time, mobilization is terrible. Lots of troops die. More in the core of the year 1898 and the war with Spain, more troops die of non-combat causes. Yellow fever, right? Yeah. Yellow fever, botulism because the food is so bad, influenza. Yeah.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
They don't have standardized weapons. You have these volunteers like the Rough Riders, and then you have a host of other kinds of units. You've got all-Black segregated units, so groups that haven't fought together side by side. You've got this sort of reconciliation of North and South, which is a piece of this, the generational change of Americans fighting together in a foreign conflict.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
But the broader thing is this had been gamed out. There was some sense that a war with Spain might happen. So there's some kind of myths that it's because Teddy Roosevelt sends this message to Dewey that he's ready to steam to Manila. But that's already in the strategic planning for the US Navy. He does activate that. And it happens that he's the most senior person in the office when it goes out.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
But that doesn't really matter. That's not Teddy Roosevelt being a more brilliant grand strategist than anyone else. The U.S. had planned and thought about this, again, for generations because the U.S. had been trying to negotiate to buy Cuba for years. It cost like $100 million under James Polk in 1848. Then they went up to an offer of $130 under Pierce in the 1850s and on and on and on.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
I could go with a long list of this. And that was based on that Monroe Doctrine thinking, isn't it? Exactly, yes. And so the ability to project that power then came right with that even before the American Civil War.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
And then it blows up spectacularly in the harbor and sinks, killing almost everybody on board. 200 plus sailors. Yes. Yeah. And immediately everyone jumps to the conclusion that it was a mine.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
And you can see this in the private correspondence of your Teddy Roosevelt, your Henry Cabot Lodge, a Republican junior senator from Massachusetts who was an arch expansionist and friend of Roosevelt, and on and on. We could make a long list. Everyone's jumping to this conclusion. And a minor investigation then concludes that the explosion must have come from outside the The hull. Right.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
Yes, you're exactly right. But the big but there is who planted the mine if that was what caused it. Yeah. Obviously, if you think about the possibilities here, in order to generate the enthusiasm and the sympathy of the US, there's some thinking that it could have been Filipino revolutionaries, it could have been Cuban revolutionaries, it could have been others.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
And then, of course, there's the more common sort of conspiracy thinking here that the Spanish did it because this was a projection of power sending this new threat. naval ship into Havana Harbor. And it's important to take one step back. Why is it there? It's not just projecting power in the sense that we're maybe flippantly describing, send your big vessel in there.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
But rather, there were some 8,000 or so Americans there, lots of American business. And that's a big part of this, too, that the disruptions of all these revolutions are undercutting American trade and commerce and threatening American lives. And that's a new development as well in the late 19th century. The U.S. government is now protecting Americans abroad in a new way. And this gets the U.S.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
into a lot of trouble in the 20th century, but also becomes an expectation that Americans have and, frankly, people of other countries do as well. If you get in trouble in another country, you think that you can have recourse to your diplomats, to your embassies. This is new for the U.S., and the U.S. is, the Maine is one of the first efforts like this that happened, usually involving ships. Sure.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
It is one of the first modern media wars in some ways. There are journalists there on the ground. They're actually there in vessels. They're often armed, these journalists. They're in some ways partisans. They are interviewing folks. There's a woman, Evangelina Ecosnos, who becomes the sort of martyr figure for Cuban suffering. And they interview her regularly.
American History Hit
The Spanish-American War
There's photos of her in mourning gear. There's all kinds of accounts of the atrocities on the island of Cuba in particular, fanning the flames of patriotism and of war and conflict. And there's some famous accounts too that Hearst and Pulitzer would say that they bought the war, that it was their war. Now, I think that's a little, you know, historians and political scientists push back on that.