The chief reason why both the Reagan-Wright and the Oscar Arias “peace plans” for Central America are not acceptable is that they violate the Monroe Doctrine, one of the most important precepts of American foreign policy for 164 years. Both “peace” plans call for legitimizing the existing regimes in the five Central American countries and maintaining them in power.
The Reagan-Wright-Arias proposals sound ominously like the Brezhnev Doctrine: once a country goes Communist, it cannot be overthrown.
Under the Monroe Doctrine, the United States simply cannot allow a Soviet client Communist regime to remain in power in Nicaragua. The Monroe Doctrine commits the United States to prevent Old World powers from extending “their system to any portion of this hemisphere” because that would be “dangerous to our peace and safety.”
On April 28 of this year, Prime Minister Eugenia Charles of the little Caribbean country of Dominica spoke on the Monroe Doctrine at a dinner at the U.S. State Department. It was her telephone call to President Reagan at 3:30 a.m. that impelled him to give the pre-dawn order to our Marines to liberate Grenada in 1983 from its then Communist bosses.
Because Madam Charles’ speech is an important piece of history but was not reported anywhere, I’m devoting the rest of this column to excerpts from this speech which gives Americans a rare view of the Monroe Doctrine from the Caribbean.
“I speak tonight on the continuing validity of the Monroe Doctrine. The isolationists forget that there are three precepts of the Doctrine: no further European colonialization in the New World, non-intervention of Europe in the governments of the American Hemisphere, and no transfer of any existing European colonies from one European sovereign to another.
“The United States would not go to war to obtain their freedom. But if the freedom or the sovereignty of any country was threatened, the U.S. would act to prevent it. If you state that certain things must not happen, unless you are a sycophant, or worse a hypocrite, you must intend to take action to prevent these things happening.
“Freedom was the watchword. It stated that, if you are a colony, we will not interfere, but we will not allow you to be passed on to another colonizer.
“Those were very strong words. I have got to think that there are still leaders in the United States who adhere to this policy.
“How can anyone who reads these words declare that the Monroe Doctrine is just a ‘hands-off’ sign, an indifference as to what the rest of the world is going through, a ‘do-not-care’ attitude that the problem is not within our own boundaries?
“The underlying precepts of the Monroe Doctrine’s three principles have not changed at all. They have taken on additional meaning. In the pronouncement that the United States was declaring a special interest in this region, your President Monroe was proclaiming that the United States had accepted the responsibility of seeing to it that countries in this region maintain the freedom that they wanted and had gained. This has not changed and cannot change.
“We had no difficulty in seeking assistance from another country in the Americas. Who best to help us in our hour of need than a country which 160 years earlier had declared that we were part of the region, and as such had a right to have our freedoms protected by concerted action!
“The Monroe Doctrine was applied fittingly in this case. Foreign countries through their representatives inside Grenada were manipulating acts of aggression which could not be tolerated. Our islands were threatened with indirect attacks of aggression.
“To people who think that attack means physical blows, let me assure them that attacks on the mind, on the thinking, on the decision making capability is far, far worse. It is more difficult to discern, it is more difficult to withstand, and it requires a great deal more resources than we have at our disposal to avert. To fight these indirect acts of aggression requires a great deal of time, patience, and diligence.
“The Monroe Doctrine survives and has survived for 164 years by whatever name it has been called. It declared the Americas (and that includes the Caribbean) to be one region deserving of protection by the United States in order to ensure that our freedoms and sovereignty are maintained.
“It is based on the well-founded principles of democracy, that even while respecting the minority, the majority’s will must be maintained. The totalitarian challenge has made adherence to the Monroe Doctrine even more important.
“We in the Caribbean, who see ourselves as allies of the Americas, wish to maintain that tradition and uphold the Monroe Doctrine as it has developed through the ages.”
