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U.S. History 1877-Present Videos 173 videos
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U.S. History 1877-Present 7: The Clark Memorandum 59 Views
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Description:
When someone asks us for help, that totally means that we get to invade their country and rule it for a few decades...right? Well, it kind of did until the Clark Memorandum came about.
Transcript
- 00:04
The US took another big foreign policy turn in the 20s by [People in discussion in Congress]
- 00:07
changing up the way we dealt with Latin America
- 00:10
take for example Nicaragua which had been under the food of the US Marine [Boot squashes Nicaragua flag]
- 00:14
Corps since 1912 how did that happen when the president of Nicaragua Adolfo
- 00:20
Diaz feared he was about to be overthrown by a rebellion in 1912 he [Diaz having nightmare while sleeping]
Full Transcript
- 00:24
called on the u.s. to support him saying that American citizens living in
- 00:27
Nicaragua needed Uncle Sam de swooped in and saved the day the US was like no
- 00:33
sweat and sent in the Marines to crush the rebellion but like unwanted [marines appear]
- 00:38
houseguests who just won't leave your couch the Marines occupied in ran [Woman shouting at man to get out of room]
- 00:42
Nicaragua for 21 years from 1912 to 1933 at putting teeth in
- 00:47
the old Monroe Doctrine there yeah but by the late 1920s at the very end of
- 00:52
Coolidge's second term American foreign policy leaders became uncomfortable with
- 00:56
our military governing of sovereign nation it's kind of hard to argue that [Uncle Sam and statue of liberty appears]
- 01:00
you're the land of the free when you're running a military dictatorship in other
- 01:04
land plus Latin American nations were starting to seriously complain about
- 01:08
u.s. bossiness for some reason they had a problem with the u.s. butting in on
- 01:12
all their political and economic affairs the US had been doing a good job this [US flag giving peace sign]
- 01:16
decade of avoiding war in Europe and Asia so we figured kicking one off in
- 01:20
our own hemisphere was not the most fun idea all this led to Secretary of State
- 01:25
Jay Reuben Clark riding up the clock memorandum in December 1928 now we [Reuben Clark appears looking at the Monroe Doctrine]
- 01:30
remember that the Monroe Doctrine claimed the u.s. had an interest in the
- 01:33
well-being and political independence of Latin American nations all of our
- 01:37
interventions Glanton America for a century had been justified by this [Latin Americans appear]
- 01:40
doctrine we were strong and had to protect our weak neighbors whether they
- 01:44
liked it or not but the Clark memorandum took a different stand first all nations
- 01:49
have the right to self-preservation second the US would not intervene in [Little girl standing in between riot police]
- 01:53
Latin American nations just to protect them from European interference which
- 01:57
was the original goal of the Monroe Doctrine third the US would only
- 02:01
intervene if trouble in Latin American nation was threatening u.s. national [British flag aims gun at Nicaragua flag]
- 02:05
security you know like they lost a stove on or something fourth the Monroe
- 02:10
Doctrine doesn't pit America against Latin America
- 02:13
it just puts us on the same side against European interference and last of all
- 02:18
even if the monroe doctrine never existed the US had the right to [US flag extinguishes fire]
- 02:22
intervene in latin america its events there were threatening our national
- 02:25
security our right is a sovereign nation that self-defence was enough of a reason
- 02:29
to intervene we didn't need to justify it through the monroe doctrine all this
- 02:34
makes up some pretty slick foreign policy how because we were informally on
- 02:38
the same side of latin america without ever signing a lion street it was the [People shaking hands and person signing document]
- 02:42
perfect setup for a commitment-phobe yet the threat of the u.s. attacking an
- 02:46
european power because that European powers actions in Latin America
- 02:50
threatened us Europe minding its P's and Q's in Latin America yet the US was [Man performing parkour]
- 02:56
doing some serious foreign policy acrobatics Secretary of State Jay Reuben
- 02:59
Clark could have joined the Cirque de Soleil although he probably wouldn't [Reuben Clark looking at Cirque de soleil performers]
- 03:03
look that great in body makeup in sequence
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