Former President Donald Trump greets supporters at the caucus vigil party at the Treasure Island Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas on February 8.
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Former President Donald Trump greets supporters at the caucus vigil party at the Treasure Island Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas on February 8.
Mario Tama/Getty Images
Not so long ago, when we heard political conversations about isolationism, we thought it was a thing of the past.
The idea that the United States could stand alone in the world politically, economically, and militarily, which was popular in the 1920s and 1930s, disappeared after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, which pushed the United States into World War II. After that, it was no longer trusted.
The attack on Pearl Harbor turned influential isolationists like Sen. Arthur Vandenberg (R-Mich.) on their head and turned them into champions of what he called “international cooperation and collective security for peace.” Ta. That conversion “was solidified on the afternoon of the attack on Pearl Harbor,” the senator wrote. “That day, for any realist, isolationism ended.”
That has been common knowledge for more than 70 years, accepted by Democratic and Republican presidents alike.
However, the term and concept of isolationism is no longer a thing of the past.
That's why Vice President Kamala Harris, speaking at the International Security Conference in Munich, Germany, on Friday reiterated the resurgence of isolationist sentiment in the United States.
“These are questions Americans must also ask themselves: Is it in America's national interest to remain engaged with the world, or is it in America's national interest to turn inward?” she said.
Harris did not mention former President Donald Trump by name in her public remarks, but left little doubt about her ultimate goal.
He said “some people in the United States disagree” with the global leadership role the United States has played. “They are suggesting that it is in the best interest of the American people to isolate themselves from the rest of the world,” “embracing dictators and adopting their repressive tactics, abandoning commitments to allies and unilaterally We support such action.”
She called that worldview “dangerous, unstable, and downright short-sighted” as it “undermines America and undermines global stability and global prosperity.”
At a rally in Conway, South Carolina, earlier this month, President Trump “encouraged'' Russia to do “whatever it wants'' with North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries it deems delinquent on their payments to the alliance. “I will,” he said, sparking a debate.
denial of mutual defense
In addition to misrepresenting how NATO is funded, President Trump was denying the core purpose of the mutual defense agreement. Article 5 of the 1949 Convention states that an attack on one member state is considered an attack on all.
It was a strikingly blatant restatement of what President Trump has been hinting at for years, rarely expressed in such stark terms. President Trump's position on NATO has taken on added importance as the alliance expands in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which was previously not a member of NATO.
In virtually the same news cycle, a majority of Senate Republicans voted against a bill that would send an additional $60 billion in U.S. military aid to help Ukraine repel Russian aggression. That amount would be reduced for Israel and U.S. allies in Asia.
They include J.D. Vance of Ohio, who was elected in 2022 with President Trump's support and has argued for months that the U.S. should not write a “blank check” to Ukraine. .
Although some of Vance's Republican colleagues had other issues with the bill, the fundamental question was the fundamental need for U.S. involvement in these conflicts.
And while the aid bill ultimately passed the Senate with a bipartisan vote of 70, it has hit a wall in the House. Speaker Mike Johnson said the bill would not be brought to a floor vote because it does not address the situation at the U.S. southern border. Early attempts in the Senate to reach a bipartisan compromise on the border were opposed by most Republicans and vetoed by Mr. Johnson.
Former Vice President Mike Pence could be said to have foreseen that moment last October, when he was still the 2024 Republican presidential candidate. In response to Hamas' attacks on Israel, Mr. Pence blamed the weakness of both parties in the United States, including the Republican Party, which “have embraced the language of isolationism and appeasement.”
echoes of the past
A crowd of more than 4,000 filled the Gospel Tabernacle in Fort Wayne, Indiana, to hear Col. Charles Lindbergh speak from the center podium at the America First Committee meeting on October 3, 1941. .
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A crowd of more than 4,000 filled the Gospel Tabernacle in Fort Wayne, Indiana, to hear Col. Charles Lindbergh speak from the center podium at the America First Committee meeting on October 3, 1941. .
AP
In a sense, Mr. Trump and his allies in Congress and some in the media are renewing and restating fears expressed by generations of Americans.
George Washington famously warned the nation in his 1796 Farewell Address to “avoid permanent union with any part of the foreign world.”
And its recommendations remained influential over the next century and a half, even though the United States declared war six times and engaged in many other military expeditions on foreign soil during that time.
In April 1917, the United States entered what is now known as World War I. Many people opposed the war, and when it ended there was a widespread feeling of futility.
That disillusionment contributed to the Senate's refusal to join the League of Nations in 1920, and had a profound impact on the following decade. In the 1930s, America's involvement in trade wars deepened the global recession, but for some it only strengthened the appeal of isolationism.
The America First Committee came to embody that sentiment. The plan was launched by Yale students in the fall of 1940, when war was raging again in Europe and Asia and Congress was voting on the first U.S. peacetime draft. At its peak, AFC had 800,000 members. They included farmers, bankers, members of both major political parties, and individuals with more extreme views on the left and right.
Its most famous members were car manufacturer Henry Ford and aviator Charles Lindbergh, who made the first solo transatlantic flight. Ford was widely considered to be an anti-Semite, and Lindbergh had traveled to Germany expressing admiration for the Nazi regime.
American aviator Charles Lindbergh (right) poses with Henry Ford on April 14, 1942 in Dearborn, Michigan.
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American aviator Charles Lindbergh (right) poses with Henry Ford on April 14, 1942 in Dearborn, Michigan.
Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
But everything changed overnight with the attack on Pearl Harbor. Lindbergh called on the organization's members to support the war effort, and three days after the declaration of war on Japan, the leaders met and disbanded the organization.
At the time, they issued a statement saying, “Our principles were sound. If they had been upheld, war could have been avoided. I can't do it,” he said.
For a while, the phrase “America First” seemed like a product of the pre-war world. But the idea that the United States would better itself by holding the rest of the world at arm's length never completely disappeared from political discourse.
Pat Buchanan, a journalist and then Richard Nixon's speechwriter, ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 1992 and 1996 before becoming the Reform Party candidate in 2000. His Reform Party's campaign theme was “America First.”
Donald Trump, who briefly sought the nomination of the same Reform Party in 2000, first adopted Buchanan's slogan 15 years later to seek the Republican nomination. He also quoted from Ronald Reagan's 1980 campaign, removing only his first words: “Make America Great Again.”
Since then, the latter slogan has become part of the language, abbreviated as MAGA. But so is “America First,” albeit to a lesser degree. This is generally accepted by Republican candidates for various offices.
Different reactions to war experiences
Many of these candidates, at various levels, have active military backgrounds and are veterans of deployments to Afghanistan, Iraq, and other War on Terror theaters. The experience of these conflicts influenced their attitudes toward activist policies of external engagement.
This sets them apart from World War II and Cold War veterans who generally supported not only international trade but also a strong military posture and aggressive response to communist regimes around the world. There is.
One result of that pervasive attitude was a long and costly war in Vietnam, followed by a backlash from the next generation of political leaders who opposed that war. Some, like 2004 Democratic presidential candidate and longtime Massachusetts senator John Kerry, served in Vietnam.
Although the backlash against foreign intervention after the Vietnam War came primarily from Democrats, in the 1990s many Republicans opposed President Bill Clinton's willingness to aid allies in the Balkan wars.
Some members of both parties resisted authorizing the first Persian Gulf expedition in 1991 (following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait) and the subsequent invasion of Iraq in 2003. There was bipartisan support for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, at least initially, but that gradually waned. These expeditions became years of work, costing lives and trillions of dollars.
Still, the energy mainstream reinvigorating today's isolationism has a much older history, with international commitments including military treaties such as the United Nations, World Trade Organization, free trade agreements, and NATO that mandate fighting on behalf of the United States. It is characterized by doubt and rejection. other countries.
