Big Stick Abroad John Milton Cooper American

Big Stick Abroad John Milton Cooper American Perspectives volume 2 5th edition. typed, double space

Essentially, John Milton Cooper's historical article entitled "Big Stick Abroad" is about the accomplishments of United States President Theodore Roosevelt in the fledgling years of the 20th century. The article focuses primarily on Roosevelt's foreign policy and the many cessions he was able to grant the U.S. during his tenure as president. However, the article also attempts an inspection of some of the moral implications of Roosevelt's actions, which were largely viewed as imperialist in tendency and in practice. Essentially then, this article contextualizes Roosevelt's presidency within the scope of focus of his foreign policy and explains to the reader that this part of the president's career was his most noteworthy.

According to Cooper's article, Roosevelt's primary accomplishment during his tenure in command of the executive branch of the U.S. all stems from the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, of course, was a document that denoted that the U.S. would greatly discourage any further colonization (largely by European powers) within the American continent that included not just North America, but South American and Central America as well. Roosevelt's corollary explained that the U.S. would be justified to employ a show of force of arms to prevent any country from attempting to colonize or even intervene on behalf of any of the countries within Central, South and North America. Moreover, the author denotes that another fairly noteworthy achievement during Roosevelt's presidency was his prevention of German banking influencing Venezuela -- particularly when the former tried to collect debts from the latter. Lastly, Cooper makes it abundantly clear that the single greatest deed that Roosevelt was able to achieve was the cession of Panama from Columbia. This fact is largely due to the importance of this armed revolt in facilitating the Panama Canal, which was deemed necessary by Roosevelt and other American and European powers for the simple fact that it allowed more expedient access to territory in Alaska and other parts of the world.

What Cooper is essentially attempting to argue is the fact that Roosevelt's deeds should be regarded in a positive light, and that what he was able to implement with his foreign policy was actually beneficial to the United States and, indeed, to the world at large. This integral component of Cooper's article is sufficiently demonstrated in a number of places, perhaps most saliently in his quotation from Roosevelt regarding the corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. The author includes a quotation in which Roosevelt is seemingly issuing this corollary in an attempt to protect the nations of Latin America. Additionally, Cooper exposes what initially was the tacit nature that Roosevelt chose to aid Panama during its armed revolt against Colombia. He details Roosevelt's initial denials, both in public and in private, regarding the involvement of United States military in Panama's cession. He also offers a number of passages in which Roosevelt actually defends his decision to facilitate the separation of Panama from Columbia, in which the former U.S. President is decidedly unapologetic and is fairly convincing in his depiction of the U.S.'s involvement as being beneficial for the world at large.

Lastly, Cooper reinforces the notion that he views Roosevelt's foreign policy accomplishments as auspicious by depicting his own personal inspection of the progress of the Panama Canal. Roosevelt is rendered resplendent aboard a steam ship, in a flowing white suit, glorying in his triumph. The connotations and denotations of this imagery are quite clear. Roosevelt's actions are revered as benign, and the display of his personal power in guiding a ship to view one of man's triumphs over the natural elements in indicative of the power and might of the U.S. under the presidential guidance of Roosevelt.