AMERICA II
EDITORS' NOTE:
The three different versions of American
history in the comments by Michael Harrington, Arthur Schlesinger,
Jr., and Howard Zinn on William Appleman Williams's reading of
our pasf continue PR's series on what's happening to America.
Readers' comments are welcomed.
Michael Harrington
America has long been burdened by an overly easy conscience.
This is the nation of "pacifist imperialism" (the phrase is Trot–
sky's).
It
came upon the world market as a great power when the col–
onies had already been divided among the Europeans. So with an ex-
!
ception or two, it did not occupy and administer other countries as En–
gland, France and Germany did. Instead, its imperial aims were served
by a seeming antiimperialism: the Open Door, free access for all to
Asia, i.e., the right of the economically strongest nation to dominate.
I t is in this context that
4
one can 'understand the "democratism,"
the ideology of independence, with which Franklin D. Roosevelt so
angered Charles de Gaulle. It even helps explain that extraordinary–
and brief - moment at the end of World War II in Indochina when
American agents conspired with Ho Chi Minh against the French.
As a result of this history, Americans feel guiltless about foreign
1
The Roots of the Modern American Empire.
By
William Appleman
Wil–
liams. Random House. $15.00
