The Imperial Cruise: A Secret History of Empire and War

Bradley, James. The Imperial Cruise: A Secret History of Empire and War. 2009. 387p. ISBN 978-0-316-00895-2. Available at 359.4 BRA on the library shelves.

By the late 1880s, the United States had declared the frontier settled, and Americans now stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Racist theories espoused by many in American leadership claimed that Native Americans had been defeated because they were uncivilized and barbarians. White Protestant Americans, they claimed, were the superior beings both physically and intellectually. They had followed the sun westward and claimed land for their superior race. When a conflict with Spain occurred, the United States stretched its imperial hands and grabbed Hawaii and the Philippines, while making Cuba and Puerto Rico de facto colonies.

Theodore Roosevelt was a proponent of these racist theories, and he used his considerable power as president of the United States to implement a secret policy of Asian domination. By 1905, the United States were involved in counterinsurgency actions in the Philippines, and were watching with envy European powers carve China. Japan had just defeated Russia, the first time a non-White power had inflicted a loss on a White Christian power. Roosevelt saw this as the perfect opportunity to crack China and allow American businesses to enter its large market.

In a series of secret meetings, Roosevelt illegally negotiated with the Japanese to provide them support to implement their own Monroe Doctrine in Asia to "promote" civilization. These meetings culminated in the annexation of Korea, which the United States had signed a treaty to protect, by the Japanese in exchange for a free hand in the Philippines and with a foothold in China. To cement all of these secret transactions, Roosevelt sent his Secretary of War, William Taft, and his loose cannon of a daughter, on a months long cruise in the Pacific. 

Roosevelt's limited and racist views did not see the long game, and the agreements he made would later directly lead to the Japanese attack in Pearl Harbor, as well as the rise of ultimate triumph of the Communists in China and of the Korean War, costing the United States blood and treasure.

Fans of history will appreciate the impact that short-sightedness, expansionism and the threat of military action had on the political trajectory of the United States.