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The Myth of the Interventionist Founding Fathers

Jeffrey Lord offers the hawkish view of early American history: The Founding Fathers, for example, repeatedly intervened in countries outside U.S. borders, contrary to the impression Paul tries to give. By “repeatedly intervened,” he means that they fought exactly two wars that involved putting American forces on foreign soil. Not counting the Quasi-War, the U.S. […]

Jeffrey Lord offers the hawkish view of early American history:

The Founding Fathers, for example, repeatedly intervened in countries outside U.S. borders, contrary to the impression Paul tries to give.

By “repeatedly intervened,” he means that they fought exactly two wars that involved putting American forces on foreign soil. Not counting the Quasi-War, the U.S. during the Founding generation waged just two foreign wars, one of which was in North America. The first of these was a war of retaliation, and the second was an ill-advised war against Britain that was at least partially justified as necessary to protect American ships and sailors. Whether or not the War of 1812 was wise (it wasn’t), it had some direct relationship to defending U.S. interests. These wars have little or nothing in common with the foreign interventions that Lord is endorsing here, and it is unlikely that the Founders would have seen any reason to intervene in foreign conflicts in Europe or Asia. We know for certain that none of the first six Founding generation administrations ever intervened in such conflicts, and we have every reason to believe that all of the first six Presidents from the Founding generation abhorred the idea of entangling the United States in the quarrels of the Old World.

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