Chapter 8: Grand Strategy of the United States

South America appears to be a single integrated continent. In fact it is deeply divided by impenetrable terrain. The Pacific coast of Latin America consists of the Andes Mountains, enormously more rugged and impassable than the Alleghenies that blocked U.S. westward expansion, leaving hardly any coastal plain. The center of Latin America consists of the Amazon River Basin, covered by dense and virtually impassable jungle. Latin America could not coalesce into a single country, because It is as physically divided as Japan and China. And given the language differences between Brazil and Argentina, unification there is unlikely. This explains why the United States has no real challenge from South America. It also explains why North America, and not the entire western hemisphere, is the center of gravity of the international system.

The greater fear of the United States is that some outside power would use Latin America as a base of operations against the United States. This fear was expressed in the Monroe Doctrine of 1823. The Monroe Doctrine was sheer nerve. The United States was in no position to enforce the doctrine when it was announced, nor was it in a position to stop Latin American countries from entering into treaties if they chose. But the doctrine expressed the imperative well. In fact, that is how it should be viewed, less as a doctrine to be enforced than as a doctrine to be perpetually pursued.

Take the case of Cuba. Cuba is never a problem to the United States on its own. It can become a major problem when a significant foreign power is allied with Cuba. Cuba potentially blocks access between the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. When Cuba belonged to Spain, this was a sensitive issue and in 1898 the United States went to war with Spain over Cuba. Before and during World War II, the United States was concerned about German influence in Cuba and the possibility of a German inspired coup that would give Germany a base there. During the Cold War, when the Soviet did have a base in Cuba, the United States almost went to nuclear war over the issue. At other times, regardless of the type of regime, Cuba is of little importance to the United States.

Cuba is the most extreme for the United States in Latin America. But it defines the American view of Latin America. The United States does not want a united Latin America. However, that is not a significant threat given Latin American geography. The United States generally is indifferent to Latin America, unless a major foreign power becomes involved in the region. In that case it intervenes overtly or covertly to block them. There were multiple covert operations in Latin America designed to block potential pro-Soviet regimes. Once the threat subsided, so did the interest. Therefore, the United States achieved its strategic goal in Latin America. There was no circumstance under which Latin America could threaten U.S. domination of North America.

The sole exception of this potentially is Mexico. Mexico not only shares a border with the United States, but was once a competitor with the United States for domination of North America. That competition has been suspended because of the relative power of each country, but the should the power of Washington ever break for any reason, Mexico remains the country that would be in a position to take advantage of it. As we shall see, however, the subject isn’t closed.

In 1812, the British Navy sailed up the Chesapeake and burned Washington. Throughout the 19^th century, the United States was terrified that the British, using their overwhelming control of the North Atlantic, would shut of U.S. access to the ocean, and strangle the United States. It was not always a paranoid fear. The British considered it on more than one occasion. And the fear was not only blockade, but the possibility of invasion. The U.S. didn’t start building a significant navy until the late 19^th century. One way to measure the success of the U.S. economy during the 19^th century was that the U.S. could afford to build a navy, which was then and still is fiendishly expensive.

The United States had a complicated problem. It had two coasts to protect. Two is ruinous. In order to save money the United States solved this problem by constructing the Panama Canal, which should give you an idea of how expensive a fleet is. The Panama Canal was built to allow U.S warships to move quickly from one ocean to another.

Technology was a factor in how the U.S. approached the problem of defending their coast. During this period, ships ran on coal, and had to be replenished every few thousand miles. In the Pacific, the solution was simple. There were only two places in the Pacific where a coaling station could be built to threaten the U.S. One was the Aleutian islands of Alaska. The other was Hawaii. Assuming no Latin American country provided a port to an enemy fleet, there was no other way to reach the United States.

The United States had bought Alaska from Russia during the Civil War. The U.S. annexed Hawaii in 1898. Hawaii was about 2400 miles away from the U.S. coast, the extreme limit of warship of that period. By seizing Hawaii, the United States closed of any chance of a Pacific threat. So long as Pearl Harbor was in American hands, the West Coast was secure.