The Monroe Doctrine

Report Outline
Origin of the Monroe Doctrine
Early Applications of Monroe Doctrine
The Civil War and the Monroe Doctrine
Venezuelan Incidents of 1395 and 1902
The Monroe Doctrine and the Panama Canal
Monroe Doctrine and Latin American Policies

The principles of the Monroe doctrine were said by President Coolidge in a statement at the White House, January 18, 1927, to have a “distinct place” at the basis of present American policy in Nicaragua. In Senate debate on this policy five days before, it had been asserted by Senator Borah, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, that the Monroe doctrine had no application to the situation existing in Nicaragua and that nothing connected with that situation “would justify an appeal to the Monroe doctrine.” Subsequent debate in both houses disclosed a wide difference of opinion as to whether or not the principles of the Monroe doctrine were involved.

Prior to the landing of American marines in Nicaragua, President Coolidge stated in his special message of January 10, the Government of the United States had received repeated requests from American citizens for protection and similar requests had been made by British and Italian diplomatic officials on behalf of their nationals in Nicaragua, In this situation, it was later explained at the White House, it became the duty of the United States to afford protection to the lives and property of both Americans and foreigners, or, failing in that, to permit armed intervention for the protection of their nationals by foreign powers which would have been inconsistent with the principles of the Monroe doctrine.

Foreign Interference in Nicaragua

President Coolidge, while giving notice in his special message of his intention to follow the path of his predecessors in dealing with the situation in Nicaragua, made no specific mention of the Monroe doctrine as a basis of his policy.