Sublime

What this rotting empire needed was faster transportation. And that required seizing land. Captain Mahan had suggested opening a canal through the Central American isthmus, which divided the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and Roosevelt agreed. He tried to buy territory from Colombia, without luck. He tried threatening and got no further. Finally, con

In 1946, the year the Philippines gained its liberty, Muñoz Marín came out publicly against independence and purged his party of members who favored it. The PPD would instead champion a middle solution—not independence, not statehood, but something in between. The hope was to gain autonomy for Puerto Rico without losing access to the U.S. market (“

From the legal-diplomatic standpoint the undertaking was made possible by a treaty signed in Bogotá. Panama was still part of Colombia (or New Granada, as it was then known), and for years the government at Bogotá had been urging Great Britain and France to guarantee New Granada’s sovereignty over the isthmus as well as the neutrality of any future

To an unrivaled extent, Obama identified American interests with the Palestinians.

Another casualty of the treaty fracas was Washington’s relationship with James Monroe, who had fought with him at Trenton. “He has in every instance,” Washington then declared, “maintained the reputation of a brave, active, and sensible officer.”23 In appointing Monroe as minister to France in 1794, Washington aimed to reduce tensions between Feder

After U.S. troops entered the city, locking out their comrades in arms, McKinley issued his declaration. There would be “no joint occupation with the insurgents,” and the Filipinos “must recognize the military occupation and authority of the United States.” Thus began a standoff. The United States held Manila and ruled the waves. Aguinaldo’s govern

While this last was an overstatement and probably a rumor that Donovan himself had spread, it was not far from the mark. Twenty-two years earlier, when presented the Medal of Honor for actions on the Western Front at an award ceremony in the New York City Armory, Donovan had melodramatically unclasped the strap, then re-presented it to the four tho