The US Followed a Policy of Foreign Intervention Long before World War II
In history classes (in public or private schools, colleges, and others), state propaganda, and mainstream history, a historical fiction has been spun that allegedly debunks any notion of noninterventionism. This is the myth of American isolationism.
The assertion usually goes that America was extremely isolationist prior to World War I and had no interest in involving itself in unnecessary warfare. After the Zimmermann telegram was sent, America was then forced to enter the war, quickly ended the war, and promptly withdrew from meddling with the outside world, even refusing to enter the League of Nations. America then spent the next two decades in isolation, foolishly ignoring the world stage until being unexpectedly attacked by Japan.
Variations exist, but this is the general reasoning pushed by the State Department, the Council on Foreign Relations, and Wikipedia. I also distinctly remember hearing that line of reasoning in multiple history classes going back to when I was in the seventh grade.
The narrative that America had its time of isolationism is frequently wielded as a cudgel, used to illustrate in simplicity how backward and cowardly the policy is. To anyone who has adopted this narrative, isolationism is evil because it either exacerbated or directly caused World War II, leaving the Allies without American military and industry. Its supporters usually claim that the war would not have happened or would have been much shorter had America supported the Allies from the beginning. Although not always, this moralizing is usually tied in with popular criticisms of appeasement. When the two are combined, a powerful cause for intervention exists. After all, ignoring whatever has been deemed the foreign “threat” by the state is pig-headed isolationism, and downplaying the threat is evil appeasement.
Basic Problems
This supposed history of isolation is complete fiction. The minor details can be dealt with first. America was by no means forced to enter World War I because of Arthur Zimmermann’s infamous proposal to Mexico. The telegram is very short, and I invite you to read it for yourself if you have not done so before.
Every single promise in the telegram, though considered briefly, was determined to be unreliable or unbeneficial. Mexico was, at the time, embroiled in a civil war, which is a rather inopportune time to strike a much larger, much more powerful neighbor. The financial support was written off out of hand, as Germany had admitted only a year earlier that it had no gold to spare. In the event of victory, the possibility of Mexico holding on to Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona was slim, and the Mexican government realized this. They understood that in the near seven decades since Mexico lost these territories, the Southwest had been settled by millions of fiercely independent Anglo Protestants. These Anglo Protestants would not take kindly to Mexican governance. As we can see, the Zimmermann telegram would have been discarded as a diplomatic faux pas if not for the powerful interests determined to enter the war.
Upon entering World War II, the Japanese attack was also not unexpected or even the first attack of United States vessels by the Japanese during Japan’s imperialistic expansion. Though the bombing of Pearl Harbor was not planned on, an American entry into the war was certainly in the works for quite a while beforehand.
The Major Pr
Article from Mises Wire
