Seen today the Monroe Doctrine is a short subject that casts that piece of
foreign policy issued in an address to Congress. The new republics of Latin
America shook off the increasingly weakening rule of Spain when the country
was preoccupied with its own survival during the Napoleonic wars. The powers
in Europe not wanting any more of this revolution business wanted to see
Spanish rule destroyed, a really mind boggling proposition when you think
about it.
One power did not and that was Great Britain. They wanted to open up those new markets in South America to trade and as a sea power that was their living. They wanted to make it joint declaration.
President James Monroe and his Secretary of State and successor John Quincy Adams said thanks but no thanks. Nevertheless in 1823 we could make a bold declaration, but it was the British fleet at that time that gave it some teeth.
Charles Waldron plays Monroe and Grant Mitchell is Adams and we get to see Sidney Blackmer doing his patented Theodore Roosevelt imitation. I really was amused when the Venezuelan boundary dispute is cited and it only says "a foreign power" was trying to take over Venezuela in 1894. The unnamed power was Great Britain, but President Grover Cleveland decided to negotiate this one and cooler heads prevailed in Great Britain as well. No way was Hollywood going to put out anything bad about Great Britain in 1939.
The Monroe Doctrine has been also used to justify intervention in these Latin American republics, the latest being in 1965 when Lyndon Johnson went into the Dominican Republic which was of course after this film was made.
The film is certainly an attempt to give the rosiest possible interpretation of the use of this famous statement of foreign policy.
One power did not and that was Great Britain. They wanted to open up those new markets in South America to trade and as a sea power that was their living. They wanted to make it joint declaration.
President James Monroe and his Secretary of State and successor John Quincy Adams said thanks but no thanks. Nevertheless in 1823 we could make a bold declaration, but it was the British fleet at that time that gave it some teeth.
Charles Waldron plays Monroe and Grant Mitchell is Adams and we get to see Sidney Blackmer doing his patented Theodore Roosevelt imitation. I really was amused when the Venezuelan boundary dispute is cited and it only says "a foreign power" was trying to take over Venezuela in 1894. The unnamed power was Great Britain, but President Grover Cleveland decided to negotiate this one and cooler heads prevailed in Great Britain as well. No way was Hollywood going to put out anything bad about Great Britain in 1939.
The Monroe Doctrine has been also used to justify intervention in these Latin American republics, the latest being in 1965 when Lyndon Johnson went into the Dominican Republic which was of course after this film was made.
The film is certainly an attempt to give the rosiest possible interpretation of the use of this famous statement of foreign policy.