The Irony of Manifest Destiny

by William Pfaff. Walker and Company, 222 pages.

William Pfaff's dissection of American foreign policy is a compact examination that focuses on both the political and religious motivations behind America's involvement in International conflicts. One is tempted to say that it's a timely read, but with America now involved in a pseudo-war with Libya, it feels as if Mr. Pfaff's book will also have some modern relevance. It's unfortunate, then, that Mr. Pfaff's style is not always as succinct as his ideas. Although his ideas are sound, there are times when he becomes so verbose that his thoughts are lost within the density of his own prose.

There isn't much in Mr. Pfaff's book that comes as a surprise, at least to a liberal Canadian outsider such as myself. A student of American history, I have long witnessed America's transformation from a dogma of physical imperialism (the annexation of land and territories) to the sort of cultural imperialism that has been practiced ever since the end of WWII. But Mr. Pfaff explains things much better then I ever could, outlining in five chapters the process by which America has become obsessed with exporting its own ideals, to the point of inventing enemies where none exist.

Much of this book consists of a theory of how to examine American History and as such, it gets pretty esoteric. The last two chapters are more engaging, as they both examine America's "elected enemy" and demonstrate the futility of America's continual involvement in conflicts overseas. Manifest destiny, for those who don't know, is a philisophical construct given weight during the first half of the 19th century when Americans began expanding west; it was generally believed by many that it was America's destiny to inhabit the hemisphere (or world) and it was this ideal that provided the rational for expansion. As seen by Mr. Pfaff, America is something of a serial warmongers, unable to keep itself out of conflicts even though it has not actually won any since the Second World War. The governments are also revealed to be either largely ignorant of foreign cultures or purposely twisting the truth in order to drum up support for military action.

As mentioned, though, Mr. Pfaff's style sometimes leaves something to be desired; he favors long, run-on sentences that do little to clarify his ideas. There are also various generalizations (which he apologizes for in the introduction) or assertions unsupported by fact. His target audience, presumably, is not John and Jane Q. Voter, but rather the intellectual elite. This book is subtitled "The Tragedy of America's Foreign Policy", but it could just as well be called "An Open Letter to the President". Mr. Pfaff is as critical of the Obama administration as he is of America's previous governments and he clearly hopes that the political thinkers of today will take notice of what he has to say.