MELINDA CAMBER PORTER
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mean , this is a society that internally works, much better than the
others, much better than Latin America or Europe. Mexico is a
disaster . And the Americans are trying to solve even the great
problems , the racial problems. But they are unable to deal with
foreign issues. Even a great President such as Roosevelt was ig–
norant in foreign affairs. And almost all the Americans are . They
are different from the British, who always have that sense of uni–
versal history. That's why you've built a great empire, and the
Americans could not. They have the power but they don't have
the vocation to make a real workable commonwealth .
MCP:
Yes. Every attempt has failed .
OP:
The Russians, however, unlike the Americans, have an under–
standing of empire building and that is one of the great problems
in the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Russia is intrinsically a weak society, because it's a society which
cannot change . It's the same since 1917 when the Bolsheviks took
power. In fact, their foreign policy is not very different from the
Czar's.
MCP:
Are you saying that America is intrinsically a society that can–
not extend its boundaries because of its incomprehension .
OP:
Because of its foundations. Because they are a society that is try–
ing to be outside history.
MCP:
Nations seem to have different needs. I mean to expand, or
to remain somehow isolated in order to deal with national prob–
lems. For example, China.
OP:
The Americans expand but want to do it naturally. In the past
century, the only conflict, the real conflict, was with Mexico and
it was not real. There was a very silly war and they won it easily .
And then they found that they were an empire and they used their
power, but they did not do so intelligently. There's a basic contra–
diction between the founding principles of the United States and
empire building. There's a very basic contradiction between dem–
ocracy and imperialism.
MCP:
What about Central America?
OP:
In Central America the problem is very complicated because
there are so many factions. You know Central America never was
a country. It was part of the Spanish Empire.
It
was not part of
Mexico, and these separate countries didn't exist until the nine–
teenth century ; they were independent, but not because they had
a national culture. The wars of independence of Latin America
were taken as models of the war of independence in the United
