Doomy Death of a Doctrine

The Biden-Harris Administration has put the two-centuries-old Monroe Doctrine on life support, an ominous event for our security.

- Steve Forbes

In 1823 President James Monroe, in his annual address to Congress, enunciated what has become a bedrock principle of American foreign policy. He warned other powers not to interfere in the affairs of the Western Hemisphere, that a political or military intervention would be viewed as a possible hostile act against the U.S.

What prompted the Monroe Doctrine were concerns that certain European powers primarily Spain, France and Russia-were attempting to colonize or recolonize parts of the Americas. Spain had made attempts to retake newly independent Mexico, to which Washington said, forget about it. During the American Civil War, France sent troops to Mexico to install a puppet regime. When the war ended, France got the message: Get out of Mexico, or else. It withdrew. Russia ultimately gave up its ambitions in this part of the world when it sold Alaska to the U.S. in 1867.