Is the Gulf America's business? A debate between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton - Persian Gulf crisis; includes related article

National Review, Dec 3, 1990 by Maurice Cranston, John P. Roche

Cranston is author of among other works, Political Dialogues.

JEFFERSON: I remember, Hamilton, that you always wanted the United States to be a great power in the world from the very beginning of its history, but I imagine that even you would not have wished to see American forces in such numbers as we see today risking their lives in the Persian Gulf.

HAMILTON: I could wish for nothing better. It is good to see America leading where other nations follow.

JEFFERSON: The nation we helped to establish was not meant to be like others. It was intended to be a republican society of free men, who would have no desire for empire or for foreign wars.

HAMILTON: The United States was a large country in our time, and plainly destined to become even larger. A rich, populous, and progressive state cannot turn itself into a little citadel, like Switzerland.

Moat of Oceans

JEFFERSON: America is surrounded by a vast moat in the form of oceans, so it can be a kind of citadel-a great and prosperous one.

HAMILTON: I never believed in that myth of a moat of oceans. And the folly of it was proved decisively on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese flew over the Pacific to bomb the fleet at Pearl Harbor.

JEFFERSON: Pearl Harbor would never have happened if America had not intervened in foreign wars.

HAMILTON: The American government tried to keep out of World War II. The country was neutral in 1941.

JEFFERSON: But it had not been neutral in World War I. When Woodrow Wilson, having been elected on a promise to keep America neutral, entered that war, it marked a turning point in American foreign policy.

HAMILTON: Would you have had Wilson ignore a threat to American interests?

JEFFERSON: He should never have sent troops to Europe. He should have directed his efforts toward promoting reconciliation between the belligerents. World War I was a disaster for all who took part in it.

HAMILTON: All wars are disastrous to a greater or lesser degree. We must remember how much worse things might be for the country that chooses not to fight. If World War II had not occurred, America today would be part of the Thousand Year Reich of Hitler and his Japanese friends.

JEFFERSON: Of course, America had to go war in 1941. Its territory had been attacked. What we see today are Americans thousands of miles from home, not to defend America, but to defend some distant Arab principality.

HAMILTON: They are there to defend American interests: a political interest in security and order, which is as much America's interest as it is that of every other civilized state, and also an economic interest, in the free flow of oil without which American industry would slow to a halt.

JEFFERSON: America should not have an industry that is so dependent on foreign oil. You will remember that I always urged our countrymen to keep America self-sufficient. There is no need for America to be dependent on any foreign commodity.

HAMILTON: The age of agriculture was already over when you put forward such ideas. This is an age of technology, industry, and commerce--all on a global scale. Americans today cannot isolate their economy any more than their national security.

JEFFERSON: YOU continue to speak of the world as if the United States were no different from any other part of it. In the days of its foundation we thought of ourselves as setting up something unique. The American citizen, unlike the subject of a European king, was a free man, having a share in the sovereignty of the nation. He was not to be called on to march off to fight in the imperial wars that were the plague of the Old World.

HAMILTON: Wars have always been a part of human history. It was idle to think that people could enjoy perpetual peace in the New World.

JEFFERSON: It was not idle to think that people could distance themselves from the consequences of monarchy and feudalism, since America had neither of those institutions.

HAMILTON: YOU surely do not believe that all mankind's misfortunes are the fault of kings and noblemen.

JEFFERSON: MOST wars have been; certainly the ancient Greeks and Romans achieved their greatness only after they had rid themselves of monarchs.

HAMILTON: If YOU want America to model itself on ancient Rome, you cannot object to the extension of its military presence overseas. Rome made the world its own.

JEFFERSON: It is the Roman republic that affords the model, not the empire. Better still, the Greek city-states offer the best example of democracy.

HAMILTON: If the progress of democracy is your aim, how can you object to America going to foreign wars to fight for it as in 1917, Korea, and Vietnam?

JEFFERSON: I doubt if one can do much for democracy by fighting foreign wars. Woodrow Wilson claimed that by going into World War I, America was making the world "safe for democracy." The outcome of that war was the introduction of totalitarian regimes which were even more antagonistic to democracy than the systems they replaced. Democracy cannot grow out of the mouths of cannons.

HAMILTON: Cannons can be effective in overcoming the enemies of democracy.