By Thomas McInerney LTG, USAF (Ret) and Paul E. Vallely MG, US Army (Ret)
The Monroe Doctrine was articulated in President James Monroe’s seventh annual message to
Congress on December 2, 1823. The European powers, according to Monroe, were obligated to
respect the Western Hemisphere as the United States’ sphere of interest.
At the time Monroe delivered his message to Congress, the United States was still a relatively minor
player on the world stage. It clearly did not have the military or naval power to back up its assertion
of unilateral control over the Western Hemisphere, and Monroe’s bold policy statement was largely
ignored outside U.S. borders. In 1833, the United States did not invoke the Monroe Doctrine to
oppose British occupation of the Falkland Islands; it also declined to act when Britain and France
imposed a naval blockade against Argentina in 1845. But as the nation’s economic and military
strength grew, it began backing up Monroe’s words with actions. When the Civil War drew to a
close, the U.S. government supplied military and diplomatic support to Benito Juárez in Mexico,
enabling his forces to overthrow the regime of Emperor Maximilian, who had been placed on the
throne by the French government, in 1867.
President James Monroe’s 1823 annual message to Congress contained the Monroe Doctrine,
which warned European powers not to interfere in the affairs of the Western Hemisphere.
Understandably, the United States has always taken a particular interest in its closest neighbors
– the nations of the Western Hemisphere. Equally understandably, expressions of this concern
have not always been favorably regarded by other American nations.
The Monroe Doctrine is the best-known U.S. policy toward the Western Hemisphere. Buried in a
routine annual message delivered to Congress by President James Monroe in December 1823,
the doctrine warns European nations that the United States would not tolerate further
colonization or puppet monarchs. The doctrine was conceived to meet major concerns of the
moment, but it soon became a watchword of U.S. policy in the Western Hemisphere. The Monroe
Doctrine was invoked in 1865 when the U.S. government exerted diplomatic and military
pressure in support of the Mexican President Benito Juárez. This support enabled Juárez to lead
a successful revolt against the Emperor Maximilian, who had been placed on the throne by the
French government.
Almost 40 years later, in 1904, European creditors of a number of Latin American countries
threatened armed intervention to collect debts. President Theodore Roosevelt promptly
proclaimed the right of the United States to exercise an “international police power” to curb such
“chronic wrongdoing,” in his so-called Roosevelt Corollary (or extension) to the Monroe
Doctrine.
While the Monroe Doctrine’s message was designed to keep European powers out of the
Western Hemisphere, Roosevelt would strengthen its meaning to justify sending the United
States into other countries of the Western Hemisphere. As a result, U.S. Marines were sent into
Santo Domingo in 1904, Nicaragua in 1911, and Haiti in 1915, ostensibly to keep the Europeans
out. Other Latin American nations viewed these interventions with misgiving, and relations
between the “great Colossus of the North” and its southern neighbors remained strained for
many years.
In 1962, the Monroe Doctrine was invoked symbolically when the Soviet Union began to build
missile-launching sites in Cuba. With the support of the Organization of American States,
President John F. Kennedy threw a naval and air quarantine around the island. After several tense
days, the Soviet Union agreed to withdraw the missiles and dismantle the sites. The new updated
21st Century Monroe Doctrine (Donroe Doctrine by President Donald J. Trump) may well look
like the following global picture. The ‘Donroe Doctrine’ is Trump’s plan for the Western Hemisphere.
The Donald Trump administration seeks to design the new hegemony and alignments from the
Artic to the Antarctic. its obsolete air and missile bases in Turkey.1
The name America is derived from that of the Italian merchant and navigator Amerigo Vespucci
one of the earliest European explorers to visit the New World. Although at first the term America
was applied only to the southern half of the continent, the designation soon was applied to the
entire landmass. Those portions that widened out north of the Isthmus of Panama became
known as North America, and those that broadened to the south became known as South
America. According to some authorities, North America begins not at the Isthmus of Panama but
at the narrows of Tehuantepec, with the intervening region called Central America. Under such
a definition, part of Mexico must be included in Central America, although that country lies
mainly in North America proper. To overcome this anomaly, the whole of Mexico, together with
Central and South American countries, also may be grouped under the name Latin America, with
the United States and Canada being referred to as Anglo-America.. This cultural division is a very
real one, yet Mexico and Central America (including the Caribbean) are bound to the rest of North
America by strong ties of physical geography. Greenland also is culturally divided from, but
physically close to, North America. Some geographers characterize the area roughly from the
southern border of the United States to the northern border of Columbia as Middle America,
which differs from Central America because it includes Mexico. Some definitions of Middle
America also include the West Indies.2
The Western Hemisphere must be aligned to protect the area and countries from the influence
of China (CCP), its borders, essential and rare minerals, trade routes, mutual trade without tariffs,
security arrangements and Democratic principles of governing. It is recommended that initiatives
be pursued to engage Cuba to be a new territory of the United States as Puerto Rico is. The
Panama Canal should be managed by the United States and Panama. Greenland as well to
become a US territory. The treasures of materials in the Artic and Antarctica must be protected.
Maybe Canada becomes a part of the United States. Many Canadians would support that
especially the middle and Western provinces of Canada. There must be changes in Canada or
they face a major evolution.
The Donroe Doctrine for a 21st Century Realignment of the Western Hemisphere
1 National Archives, Milestone Documents.
2 Britannica , 2025
There will be changes in the Western Hemisphere in the years to come led by the United States. Changes are coming. What will it look like?
