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ro ‘ RE: COUNTERORL..vl, “ION WEEK Ye special case. While there was never any serious consideration about acquiring formal territorial possessions in Latin America to any significant extent, nonetheless Americans tended to regard, American policy makers, tended to regard Latin America as a kind of special American preserve in which other powers would have to follow the American lead. New mind you, this was already at a time when the United States in relation, say, to Great Britain, had an almost _.. funintelligible) economic interest in Latin America at a time when American trade, for example, was much less than British trade with Latin America. There was a sense, however, on the part of American policy makers that unless the United States did something, that Latin America would be closed to American economic ec»pansion. De oe Ri oe ee Bh gh 3 we oe by aa + ee | tT en In 1895, for example, the democratic Secretary of State, RICHARD OLNEY (phonetic), stated "Today the United States is practically sovreign on this continent and to (unintelligible) law open the subjects to which it confines it into position. Why? It is not because of the pure friendship er good will feit for it. It is because in addition to all other grounds, its infinite resources combined with its isolated position render it master of the situation and practically invulnerable against any Or all powers. This kind exclusivistic thinking was not typical of American policy, however, in most other parts of the world, WOODROW WILSON, for example, probably became closer than any other American President in this period to defining the kinds of world situation which was deemed desirable in terms of American interests. One histcrian of Wilsonian foreign policy has termed WILSON's views liberal capitalist internationalist. WILSON, it seems, envisaged the world in a kind of (unintelligible) state of nature, in which there were a lot of competing countries without any sense of order in the system as a whole. WOODROW WILSON believed, in line with classical liberal thinking, that orderly competition was desirable, that orderly competition would somehow lead to the benefit of all, but particularly the United States. Of course, it was quite clear in WILSON's mind that the United States and 132 a at Oe Oh ee, ee So BR th MESS ee 2 Tomes cl ORCS Nebvalig VLA ip eet I Ctpnn