Independent American Party: How Rescinding the Monroe Doctrine Endangers the United States

(The following was published on the Independent American Party’s website by Zack Strong.)

In a recent speech, Secretary of State John Kerry, on behalf of the United States, officially renounced the Monroe Doctrine. He said in part, “We have made a different choice. The era of the Monroe Doctrine is over.” Kerry’s shocking announcement marks a departure from a distinctly American policy set in place by President James Monroe in 1823.

In 1823 the United States had been in existence for barely two generations. In that time, the United States had fought Great Britain in two wars, grappled with other European powers over land, more than doubled her size and population, had established a successful limited government based on rotation, and was financially stable. Despite the United States’ firmly established hold on the main body of North America, the major European power – Spain, France, Russia, and Great Britain – were still exploring and claiming territory from the frozen north in Alaska down to the tropical tip of South America. Concerned that these monarchical European powers – Spain in particular – would reclaim their old territories in the Americas and continue to subjugate their inhabitants, James Monroe sought the advice of the greatest minds in America to develop a policy to deal with the threat.

In October 1823, President Monroe wrote privately to his good friend, Thomas Jefferson, for counsel. Monroe explained his initial idea of throwing a protective shield around the Americas and warning Europe to stay out. The 80 year old but ever brilliant Jefferson responded with emphatic support and optimism for Monroe’s ideas.

In his response letter of October 24, 1823, Thomas Jefferson told President Monroe the following:

“The question presented by the letters you have sent me, is the most momentous which has ever been offered to my contemplation since that of Independence. That made us a nation, this sets our compass and points the course which we are to steer through the ocean of time opening on us. And never could we embark on it under circumstances more auspicious. Our first and fundamental maxim should be, never to entangle ourselves in the broils of Europe. Our second, never to suffer Europe to intermeddle with cis-Atlantic affairs. America, North and South, has a set of interests distinct from those of Europe, and peculiarly her own. She should therefore have a system of her own, separate and apart from that of Europe. While the last is laboring to become the domicil of despotism, our endeavor should surely be, to make our hemisphere that of freedom” (full letter here).

Encouraged by Jefferson, James Madison, John Quincy Adams, and other influential thinkers, President Monroe issued what has since been known as the “Monroe Doctrine.” In his December 2, 1823 message to Congress, President Monroe declared that “the American continents . . . are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European power” (see full address here).

The Monroe Doctrine truly was an inspired policy that has kept the Americas relatively safe from intervention and further subjugation for many decades. Often people denigrate the Monroe Doctrine as an imperialist policy, as John Kerry insinuated in his speech. However, on further inspection of the motives of those involved in 1823, we find that they sincerely wanted to establish, as Jefferson put it, a hemisphere of freedom. At the time of Independence in 1776, the American Founders extended offers to Canada and other colonies throughout the Americas to join the cause of Independence. These offers were rejected, but many Americans still harbored the hope that these other colonies would break free of European bondage as the United States had successfully done. By throwing her lot in with these American colonies, the United States truly wanted to encourage the growth of a brotherhood of free and independent states in both North and South America.

Since 1823, the United States has often faltered in protecting the Americas and indeed engaged in her own unjust interventions in Central and South America. Throughout the Cold War the United States did little to nothing to stop the Soviet Union from building military bases throughout Central America, including 90 miles from Florida in Cuba. In the 1990s, the United States finally gave up any control over the Panama Canal, which now belongs to the Chinese. In the last two decades, China has built numerous military bases and ports in Central America and the Caribbean and has started construction on a second Panama Canal. China has bought up massive swaths of soil in the United States and is constructing on them Chinese cities, while few in the government do or say anything. While the United States has done little more than give an occasional verbal reprimand to these intervening powers, John Kerry’s address officially sanctions their actions.

To abandon the Monroe Doctrine is in effect to say that we no longer want a hemisphere of freedom. This reversal also invites further encroachments by Russia and China. As sad as it is, this should not really surprise us. The elites of the world have purposefully driven the United States into economic bondage, have spread our military thin across the globe, and have provoked the nations of the world in America’s name. America has been weakened militarily, economically, politically, culturally, and spiritually to the point where Russia and China openly prepare for and threaten us with war. Russia and China’s current arms buildup is unprecedented in the history of the world. Meanwhile, the United States continues to unravel and devolve into chaos, distrust, corruption, and decadence.

Understand that rolling back the Monroe Doctrine is simply another step towards encouraging Russia and China to one day attack the United States. This is the elites’ plan. They want a nuclear Third World War that will drive the world into their tyrannical arms. They are arrogant enough to think they can manage such a crisis and subdue the world. A New World Order has always been their goal and they stand on the brink of achieving it. All that is necessary is to throw the world into another war that will break down borders and alliances and create such fear and panic among average people that they will turn to anyone who offers salvation from the crisis. Anyone naive enough to think that such an attack is not possible and has not been planned, will be in for a rude awakening in the future. It will happen. It is our duty to prepare for such an occasion while attempting to prevent it.

America’s house of cards will crumble if we do not change a lot of things immediately and if we do not repent and become moral again. To quote Thomas Jefferson once more, “God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever” (See citation here). We must not take our Liberties for granted. We must bend the knee and express endless gratitude to the Almighty for His divine protection, for His love, and for the Freedom, prosperity, peace, and happiness that He has poured out upon the United States. However, if America does not turn to her Eternal King, His justice will not sleep forever. The day of reckoning is approaching. God bless!

By Zack Strong Issues Committee Coordinator, Independent American Party –

(For those interested in seeing the original post, you can do so by clicking here)