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Ideals and Realities in the Wilson Administration’s Relations with Honduras

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

George W. Baker
George W. Baker*
Affiliation:
East Carolina College, Greenville, North Carolina
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Extract

Unlike the Latin American policies of his predecessors, that of Woodrow Wilson was an unusual compound of ideals and realities. Wilson himself provided the first ingredient by repudiating the “Big Stick ”diplomacy of Theodore Roosevelt and the “Dollar Diplomacy ”of William Howard Taft and promising instead hemispheric friendship based upon mutual respect. Wilson proposed that the United States encourage its neighbors to become strong constitutional and democratic states and then join with it to form a confraternity for peace which the world could see and imitate. As a means to this goal, Wilson formulated a Pan American Pact to provide mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity. Although this pact was to founder upon the rock of Chilean national self-interest, its promise of a hemispheric partnership was an important step towards true Pan-Americanism.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , July 1964 , pp. 3 - 19
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1964

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References

1 For a useful collection of Wilson’s foreign policy statements, see Robinson, Edgar E. and West, Victor J., The Foreign Policy of Woodrow Wilson (New York, 1918)Google Scholar.

2 Notter, Harley, The Origins of the Foreign Policy of Woodrow Wilson (Baltimore, 1937), p. 537.Google Scholar

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5 White to Bryan, May 29, 1913, D.S. File 815.00/1503; White to Bryan, August 28, 1913, D.S. File 815.00/1509; White to Bryan, September 8, 1913, D.S. File 815.00/1529.

6 State Department Memorandum by Long, February 10, 1914, D.S. File 815.77/259; The New York Times, April 5, 1914, IV, 3:5.

7 Bryan to Jonathan Ewing, March 9, 1914, Ewing to Bryan, March 12, 1914, D.S. File 815.77/213a.

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9 The best background study is still Munro’s, Dana G. The Five Republics of Central America (New York, 1918)Google Scholar; correspondence is in Foreign Relations, 1911, pp. 296–304; Callcott, Wilfrid, The Caribbean Policy of the United States (Baltimore, 1942)Google Scholar.

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21 State Department Memorandum by Long, November 3, 1915, D.S. File 815.00/1637.

22 State Department Memorandum by Wright, May 1, 1916, D.S. File 815.00/1671.

23 State Department Memorandum by Warren Robbins, November 3, 1916, D.S. File 815.00/1703.

24 Willing Spencer to Lansing, October 31, 1916, D.S. File 815.00/1692.

25 Ewing to Lansing, January 4, 1916, Foreign Relations, 1916, pp. 391–392; Ewing to Lansing, January 2, 1917, Foreign Relations, 1917, pp. 834–835.

26 See correspondence in Foreign Relations, 1917, Supplement I, pp. 222–237, 276–284.

27 Leavell to Lansing, November 6, 1917, D.S. File 815.00/1736.

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32 Commission to Negotiate Peace to Frank Polk, January 10, 1919, ibid., p. 233.

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35 T. Sambola Jones to Lansing, March 31, 1919, D.S. File 763.72119/4646; Kelchner, Warren H., Latin American Relations with the League of Nations (Boston, 1930), pp. 10–15 Google Scholar; the anti-gringo attitude as the basis for joining the League may be vividly een in Ugarte, Manuel, “Latin America after the War,” Living Age, 310 (July 2, 1921)Google Scholar.

36 Aro Sanso, Policarpo Bonilla, pp. 520–524 and appendix.

37 Miller, David Hunter, The Drafting of the Covenant (2 vols.; New York and London, 1928), II, 715–717 Google Scholar; D.S. File 810.00/10; The New York Times, June 14, 1919, 2:5.

38 Even before the conference, Lansing had anticipated such opposition to a possible abridgement of the Monroe Doctrine when he learned that Wilson was seeking equality for the Latin American nations in the League. Memorandum of December 18, 1918, and entry of January 31, 1919, Desk Diary, The Lansing Papers, Library of Congress. Beveridge, A.J., “Pitfalls of a ‘ League of Nations,’ ”The North American Review, 209 (March, 1919), p. 312 Google Scholar; Wilson defended his views on the Monroe Doctrine for the Foreign Relations Committee in August, 1919, and for the people at Omaha, September 8, 1919, and at Helena, September 11, 1919. Baker, Ray S. and Dodd, William, The Public Papers of Woodrow Wilson (6 vols.; New York, 1925–1927), V, 577; VI, 38, 131Google Scholar. Lansing ako affirmed for the Senate that the Monroe Doctrine was still “a regional understanding.” Senate Document, 106, 68th Congress, p. 155.

39 The New York Times, June 24, 1919, p. 1; Zamora, Juan C., “Honduras, the Monroe Doctrine, and the League of Nations,” Cuba Contemporánea, 20 (May-August, 1919), pp. 541–542 Google Scholar.

40 Memorandum by Lansing, May 8, 1919, Lansing Papers; Entry of May 6, 1919, Lansing Desk Diary; The Paris Peace Conference, 1919, V, 481 Google Scholar.

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42 Jones to Lansing, May 1, 1919, D.S. File 815.00/1844; Jones to Lansing, May 5, 1919, D.S. File 815.00/1850.

43 Jones to Lansing, July 21, 1919, D.S. File 815.00/1891.

44 Lansing to Wilson, July 25, 1919, Wilson Papers, L. C.

45 Lansing to Wilson, August 29, 1919; Wilson to Lansing, September 1, 1919, D.S. File 815.00/2090.

46 Hallett Johnson to Phillips, September 4, 1919, D.S. File 815.00/1986.

47 Correspondence is in Foreign Relations, 1919, II, 384–389.

48 Memorandum by Hallett Johnson, October 3, 1919, Lansing Papers; Charge Lawton to Lansing, October 30, 1919, Foreign Relations, 1919, II, 394.

49 Young earned his Ph. D. at Princeton in 1914 and taught there for three years. In 1917, he won the attention of the State Department by his advisory work on taxes for the Mexican government. Lansing to Lawton, December 15, 1919, Foreign Relations, 1920, II, 872; Rowe to Colby, May 25, 1920, D.S. File 815.51/398Google Scholar.

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55 Manuel Estrada Cabrera to Wilson, November 30, 1918, Wilson Papers, entry of November 30, 1918, Anderson Diary.

56 Entry of April 16, 1919, Polk Diary.

57 Entry of June 12, 1919, Anderson Diary.

58 Anderson reported in his diary that Jordan Stabler of the Latin American Division said that the Department was no longer interested in the dispute since the mediation had only been undertaken because of the World War. Anderson even believed that Lansing was prone to take advantage of the Honduran revolution to force a speedy resolution of the boundary question. Lansing refuted both of these charges when Anderson consulted him. Entry of September 30, 1919.

59 Entry of January 5, 1920, Lansing Desk Diary.

60 Entry of March 1, 1920, Anderson Diary; Entry of March 4, 1920, Polk Diary.

61 Anderson was not only representing Guatemala in its dispute with Honduras, but also Nicaragua in its dispute with Honduras and Costa Rica in its dispute with Panama. Entry of December 16, 1920, Anderson Diary.

62 The United States tried again to arbitrate in 1923 and failed. In 1930 the United States obtained an arbitral treaty between Honduras and Guatemala and a special tribunal composed of Chief Justice Charles E. Hughes, Dr. Bello Codesido of Chile, and Dr. Castro Ureña of Costa Rica settled the boundary by equally dividing the territory between the parties in dispute. Fisher, F.C., “The Arbitration of the Guatemala-Honduran Boundary Dispute,” American Journal of International Law, XXVII (July, 1933)Google Scholar.

63 Correspondence is in Foreign Relations, 1918, pp. 11–20.

64 Entries of November 25, 1918, and March 1, 1920, Anderson Diary; Hallett Johnson to Polk, March 7, 1919, Polk Papers; Moore, John B., The Collected Papers of John Bassett Moore (7 vols.; New Haven, 1944), V, 118–187 Google Scholar; two further attempts, in 1931 and 1939, to settle the boundary dispute failed, and the issue is still pending.