Andrew Bacevich's Ideas and American Foreign Policy is a broad-ranging reader that serves as a comprehensive overview of the role of ideas in American foreign policy over the entirety of the nation's history. Beginning with the founding of Anglo-America and concludes with the post-9/11 era, this will be an essential volume for anyone seeking a balanced and argument-driven account of the evolution of US foreign policy.

• Introduction


• I. Founding Tradition


• John Winthrop, "A Model of Christian Charity" (1630)


• Cotton Mather, "Theopolis Americana" (1709)


• Samuel Davies, "Religion and Patriotism the Constituents of a Good Soldier" (1755)


• Patrick Henry, "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death" (1775)


• Tom Paine, "Common Sense" (1776)


• Ezra Stiles, "The United States Elevated to Glory and Honor," (1783)


• Publius [Alexander Hamilton], "The Federalist No. 11" (1787)


• George Washington, "Farewell Address" (1797)


• II. Young Republic


• Thomas Jefferson "Third Annual Message" (1803)


• John Quincy Adams, "Speech on Independence Day" (1821)


• James Monroe, "The Monroe Doctrine" (1823)


• Andrew Jackson, "On Indian Removal" (1830)


• William Penn [Jeremiah Everts], "Present Crisis in the Condition of the American Indians" (1830)


• John Ross, "Letter to Congress" (1836)


• William Wirt, "The Triumph of Liberty in France" (1830)


• Alexis de Tocqueville, "Conduct of Foreign Affairs by the American Democracy," Democracy in America (1835)


• William Ellery Channing, "A Letter to the Honorable Henry Clay" (1837)


• John L. O'Sullivan, "The Great Nation of Futurity," The United States Magazine and Democratic Review (November 1839)


• John L. O'Sullivan, "Annexation," The United States Magazine and Democratic Review (July-August 1845)


• Walt Whitman, "Our Territory on the Pacific," Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1846)


• Thomas Corwin, "On the Mexican War" (1847)


• Abraham Lincoln, "The War with Mexico" (1848)


• Millard Fillmore, "Letter to the Emperor of Japan" (1853)


• Walt Whitman, "A Broadway Pageant," Blades of Grass (1860)


• Abraham Lincoln, "Gettysburg Address" (1863)


• III. Toward Empire


• John Fiske, "Manifest Destiny," Harper's New Monthly Magazine (March 1885)


• Josiah Strong, Our Country (1885)


• Alfred Thayer Mahan, "The United States Looking Outward," The Atlantic Monthly (December 1890)


• Stephen B. Luce, "The Benefits of War" North American Review (December 1891)


• Frederick Jackson Turner, "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" (1893)


• Albert J. Beveridge, "The March of the Flag" (1898)


• William Graham Sumner, "On Empire and the Philippines" (1898)


• Rudyard Kipling, "The White Man's Burden," New York Sun (February 10, 1899)


• Finley Peter Dunne, "Expansion," Mr. Dooley in the Hearts of His Countrymen (1899)


• Jane Addams, "Democracy or Militarism" (1899)


• Andrew Carnegie, "America versus Imperialism," North American Review (January 1899)


• Albert J. Beveridge, "In Support of an American Empire" (1900)


• Mark Twain, "Battle Hymn of the Republic, Updated" (1900)


• William Jennings Bryan, "Imperialism (Flag of an Empire)" (1900)


• IV. Rising Power


• John Hay, "First Open Door Note" (1899)


• Fifty-Sixth Congress, "The Platt Amendment" (1901)


• Theodore Roosevelt, "Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine" (1904)


• Herbert Croly, The Promise of American Life (1909)


• Homer Lea, The Valor of Ignorance (1909)


• William James, "The Moral Equivalent of War," McClure's Magazine (August 1910)


• William Howard Taft, "Dollar Diplomacy" (1912)


• V. Fateful Embrace


• Woodrow Wilson, "Speech in Philadelphia" (1915)


• Woman's Peace Party, "Preamble" (1915)


• Emma Goldman, "Preparedness, the Road to Universal Slaughter," Mother Earth (December 1915)


• Woodrow Wilson, "Democracy of Business" (1916)


• Woodrow Wilson, "Peace Without Victory" (1917)


• Woodrow Wilson, "War Message" (1917)


• George Norris, "Against Entry into War" (1917)


• Robert LaFollette, "War with Germany" (1917)


• George M. Cohan, "Over There" (1917)


• Woodrow Wilson, "Address on Flag Day" (1917)


• Randolph Bourne, "The State" (1918)


• Eugene V. Debs, "Canton, Ohio Anti-War Speech" (1918)


• Woodrow Wilson, "League of Nations Speech" (1919)


• Woodrow Wilson, "Pueblo, Colorado Speech" (1919)


• Henry Cabot Lodge, "Opposing the League of Nations" (1919)


• William E. Borah, "The League of Nations" (1919)


• VI. Interwar


• United States Senate, "Report of the Overman Committee" (1919)


• Madison Grant, "Introduction" to Lothrop Stoddard, Rising Tide of Color (1921)


• Charles Evans Hughes, "The Conference on Limitation of Armament" (1921)


• Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928)


• Henry L. Stimson, "Letter to Senator Borah" (1932)


• H. C. Engelbrecht and F. C. Hanighen, Merchants of Death (1934)


• Smedley Butler, War Is a Racket (1935)


• Franklin D. Roosevelt, "Chatauqua Speech" (1936)


• VII. The Summons


• Charles A. Beard, "Giddy Minds and Foreign Quarrels," Harper's (September 1939)


• Charles Lindbergh, "Neutrality and War" (1939)


• Franklin D. Roosevelt, "Fireside Chat" (1940)


• "Step by Step - The War," Social Justice (September 2, 1940)


• Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies, "Statement of Policy" (1941)


• Charles Lindbergh, "Des Moines Speech" (1941)


• Franklin D. Roosevelt, "The Four Freedoms" (1941)


• Henry Luce, "The American Century," Life (February 17, 1941)


• Walter Lippmann, U. S. Foreign Policy: Shield of the Republic (1943)


• VIII. Crusade


• Harry S Truman, "The Truman Doctrine" (1947)


• X [George F. Kennan], "The Sources of Soviet Conduct," Foreign Affairs (July 1947)


• Eleanor Roosevelt, "Statement to the United Nations' General Assembly on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights" (1948)


• Henry A. Wallace, "My Commitments" (1948)


• Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., The Vital Center: The Politics of Freedom (1949)


• NSC 68: "United States Objectives and Programs for National Security" (1950)


• Douglas MacArthur, "Farewell Address to Congress" (1951)


• Reinhold Niebuhr, The Irony of American History (1952)


• W. W. Rostow, The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto (1960)


• John F. Kennedy, "Inaugural Address" (1961)


• Lyndon Baines Johnson, "Peace without Conquest" (1965)


• IX. Challenging the Consensus


• Graham Greene, The Quiet American (1955)


• C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite (1956)


• William Appleman Williams, The Tragedy of American Diplomacy (1959)


• Dwight D. Eisenhower, "Farewell Address to the Nation" (1961)


• Students for a Democratic Society, "The Port Huron Statement" (1962)


• Barry Goldwater, "Acceptance Speech" (1964)


• J. William Fulbright, "The Fatal Arrogance of Power" (May 15, 1966)


• Martin Luther King, "Declaration of Independence from the War in Vietnam" (1967)


• Country Joe and the Fish, "I Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die Rag" (1967)


• John Kerry, "Statement before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee" (1971)


• Jimmy Carter, "Crisis of Confidence" (July 15, 1979)


• X. Grappling with Total War


• John Cuthbert Ford, SJ, "The Morality of Obliteration Bombing," Theological Studies (1944)


• Harry S. Truman, "Statement by the President Announcing the Use of the A-Bomb at Hiroshima" (1945)


• Dorothy Day, "The Catholic Worker Response to Hiroshima," The Catholic Worker (September 1945)


• Bernard Brodie, "Implications for Military Policy" (1946)


• John Foster Dulles, "The Evolution of Foreign Policy" (1954)


• Albert Wohlstetter, "Delicate Balance of Terror" (1958)


• John F. Kennedy, "American University Speech" (1963)


• Curtis LeMay, "Graduation Address, United States Air Force Academy" (1964)


• Dr. Strangelove, a film by Stanley Kubrick (1964) [excerpt from script]


• Ronald Reagan, "Star Wars Speech" (1983)


• U.S. Catholic Bishops, "The Challenge of Peace" (1983)


• Carl Sagan, "Nuclear War and Climatic Catastrophe," Foreign Affairs (Winter 1983 / 1984)


• XI. The Passing of the Cold War


• Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, "Dictatorships and Double Standards," Commentary (November 1979)


• Ronald Reagan, "Time to Recapture Our Destiny" (July 17, 1980)


• Caspar Weinberger, "The Uses of Military Power" (1984)


• Lee Greenwood, "God Bless the USA" (1984)


• Francis Fukuyama, "The End of History?" The National Interest (Summer 1989)


• Charles Krauthammer, "The Unipolar Moment," Foreign Affairs (America and the World 1990 / 1991)


• Samuel Huntington, "The Clash of Civilizations?" Foreign Affairs (Summer 1993)


• Robert Kaplan, "The Coming Anarchy," The Atlantic Monthly (February 1994)


• Thomas L. Friedman, "A Manifesto for the Fast World," New York Times Magazine (March 28, 1999)


• Anthony Lake, "From Containment to Enlargement" (1993)


• XII. Impact of 9/11


• George W. Bush, "Address to a Joint Session of Congress" (2001)


• George W. Bush, "State of the Union Address" (2002)


• George W. Bush, "West Point Commencement Speech" (2002)


• Bernard Lewis, "A Time for Toppling," Wall Street Journal (September 28, 2002)


• Frum and Perle, An End to Evil (2004)


• Norman Podhoretz, "World War IV: How It Started, What It Means, Why We Have To Win," Commentary (September 2004)


• George W. Bush, "Second Inaugural Address" (January 20, 2005)


• XIII. Dissent after 9/11


• Susan Sontag, "Tuesday and After," The New Yorker (September 24, 2001)


• Barack Obama, "Weighing the Costs of War in Iraq" (2002)


• Stanley Hauerwas, "September 11, 2001: A Pacifist Response," Southern Atlantic Quarterly (Spring 2002)


• Immanuel Wallerstein, "The Eagle Has Crash Landed," Foreign Policy (July / August 2002)


• Wendell Berry, "A Citizen's Response to the National Security Strategy of the United States of America," Orion Magazine (March / April 2003)


• Robert Byrd, "America's Image in the World" (2003)


• Sheldon Wolin, "Inverted Totalitarianism," The Nation (May 1, 2003)


• Patrick Buchanan, "No End To War," The American Conservative (March 1, 2004)


• Peter Beinart, "A Fighting Faith," The New Republic (December 13, 2004)


• Andrew J. Bacevich, "Twilight of the Republic?" Commonweal (November 27, 2006)


• XIV. Chastened Superpower


• Robert Kagan, "Superpowers Don't Get To Retire," The New Republic (May 26, 2014)


• Donald J. Trump, "Presidential Campaign Announcement" (2015)


• John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt, "The Case for Offshore Balancing," Foreign Affairs (July / August 2016)


• Donald J. Trump, "Inaugural Address" (January 20, 2017)


• Index

Andrew J. Bacevich is Professor Emeritus of History and International Relations at Boston University. A graduate of West Point and a Vietnam Veteran, he has a doctorate in history from Princeton and was a Bush Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin. He is the author of several books, including Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War, and the New York Times best-seller The Limits of Power.