New dimensions of peace
Material type:
- 327 Bow
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Gandhi Smriti Library | 327 Bow (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | Available | 9369 |
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I hope that this edition of THE NEW DIMENSIONS OF PEACE creates among its British readers a better understanding of America's potential role in world affairs. Such understanding seems to me particularly important because of the peculiar relevance of the Anglo-American relationship to the prob iems which confront the Atlantic nations today in dealing with the newly independent or still dependent peoples of Asia, Africa and South America.
The American republic was itself founded on anti-colonialism. After seven years of war we Americans managed to sever cor nection, and for generations we retained a reservoir of petulant and suspicious ill-wind towards the old mother empire. The twisting of the Lion's tail was developed as a successful American electioneering technique. Indeed only a generation or so ago the winning candidate for mayor of Chicago made George III the principal issue of his campaign.
Yet behind the haze thrown up by surface conflicts and the suspi cions generated by the colonial relationship the course of United States history remained stubbornly linked with and even dependent on this same bluntly rejected parent.
American foreign policy in the early 19th century demanded non-involvement in European affairs. In his Farewell Address President Washington said, "It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world." It also demanded the security for our own internal development which could only result from a ban on future European interference in the Western Hemisphere.
Because America's strength was not yet developed, such a guarantee could not have been achieved without a heavy drain on our resources and energies. But happily for the young republic this objective coin cided with a British concern for its trade with the newly independent nations of Latin America, and British seapower was in a position to provide the means of enforcement which we lacked.
In the early 1820's this similarity of interests prompted Canning's approach to the American government for a joint declaration on this subject.
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