Evaluating Theodore Roosevelt’s Foreign Policy

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Source: New York Times

On Jan. 6, 1919, the 26th president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, died in Oyster Bay, N.Y., at age 60.

•Born New York City, 1858•U.S. President 1901-1909

• What U.S. or foreign wars frame TR’s life?

• How does the NYT convey the importance of TR’s loss to the nation?

• Does anything here convey that the U.S. sees itself as a world power?

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How important is foreign policywhen evaluating a president’s legacy?

For what foreign policies, ventures, and outcomes do we remember presidents of the last fifty years…

Examples:

• Johnson (1963-1969)•Nixon (1969-1974)• Carter (1977-1981)•Reagan (1981-1989)• G.W. Bush (2001-2009)• Obama (2009- )

Lowell-Courrier-Citizen, MassachusettsJanuary 7, 1919

“Two Views of the President” Which One Was He? Theodore Roosevelt

•Born New York City, 1858•U.S. President 1901-1909•Died 1919

The thesis that I especially uphold, that the man who has the power to act is to be judged not by his words by his acts–– by his words in so far as they agree with his acts. All that I say about peace I wish to judged and measured by what I actually did as President. TR 1910

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World Empires and Colonies 1898

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• In what ways do both these images convey TR’s leadership?

• How does the image to the left convey the public’s admiration for TR, while the one to the right criticizes him?

• What would you need to know to determine the accuracy of both of these images?

What do these images convey about TR’s

leadership of Foreign Policy?

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But I have thought some more, since then, and I have read carefully the treaty of Paris, and I have seen that we do not intend to free, but to subjugate the people of the Philippines. We have gone there to conquer, not to redeem. . .It should, it seems to me, be our pleasure and duty to make those people free, and let them deal with their own domestic questions in their own way. And so I am an anti-imperialist. I am opposed to having the eagle put its talons on any other land.

Mark Twain From the New York Herald, October 15, 1900