President Lincoln

Wise words from a wise man should be heeded until time proves otherwise.

President Lincoln is correct in that only when Americans disagree among themselves would they spring into action. Only when Americans feel insecure in their environment do they really want to step in the problems of others. Though it is rare that Americans feel threatened, it can be seen that throughout history, there were many periods of times when terror is spread throughout the country because of various reasons.

The Red Scare

When one looks back upon all the times when Americans were in a crisis, such as the Civil War and the World Wars, it cannot escape our notice that many war messages were made upon the argument that America was threatened by communism, injustice, or all the other ideas that the Presidents think up of. In truth, are we really threatened by these "irrational" ideas? No. Especially during the twentieth century, it could be seen that Americans just had a fear of something they had no reason to fear. An example of this was the Red Scare.

The Red Scare was a period of time shortly after World War I when sudden fear of communists, socialists, anarchists, and other 'strange' systems spread among Americans. Many innocent people were jailed just for expressing their views, civil rights were ignored, and any disruption among the government or daily lives of people were labeled as the fault of the "Reds" (Burnett, 2000).

The Scare resulted from a series of bombings that were somehow traced back to anarchists (Burnett, 2000). Suddenly, anyone who expressed their opinions against the government was labeled as such and declared an outcast by society. Horace Peters, a fictional character in an essay written by Robert Benchley, aptly describes what many people during the Red Scare experienced. He was a pacifist speaker, even after the war, but was labeled an "Anarchist" and "Pro-German." "His friends dissolved awkwardly when they saw him approaching, and, after distant nods, disappeared in an aimless manner" (Benchley, 1919).

The government was not unaffected by this irrationalism. Government agencies such as the National Security League and the American Legion promoted one hundred percent "Americanism" (Carlson, 2005). Lewis Carlson also asserted that "the red scare showed how tenuous was Americans' appreciation and understanding of their own democracy and its constitutional ideals" (Carlson, 2005). Throughout it all, this is one proof that President Lincoln is right - that the true danger lies not with all the other nations; it lies within our own public. The true threat is if and when we take think something 'harmless' is a total disaster to humanity. The Red Scare only came to be because Americans thought that the Communist revolution will soon take over the world. In truth, it was not a threat - it only became a threat when Americans acted irrationally upon the fact.

Wars and their Messages

In another example, when one takes a closer study on the various war messages from the presidents, there is a similar reason for war: democracy, freedom, and liberty are being threatened. When these messages are conveyed to the public, Americans believed that their way of life was being threatened, which was the main reason why these were believed in the first place.

Take the Cold War and the Vietnam War, for example. During the Cold War, it was a competition for technology boom and advancement on all sorts of fronts. "Trade, economic development, military power, arts, science, education, the whole world of ideas..." were the different fronts that the Cold War was being fought on. (Eisenhower, 1958). Although it was said that the presidents and Americans knew that they will win the various races, they still waged it, as if for good sport.

The Space Race was an essential part of the Cold War races. When the Russian Sputnik launched the first artificial satellite into space on October 4, 1957, Americans were both enraged and afraid that this could me the Soviets would be able to develop missiles that could carry nuclear weapons into the United States (Garber, 2007). To 'pay back' for this fear, the United States had to launch something to show our standing that if you can do it, we can do it, too Wright, 1997).

Expectation 4

The Vietnam War is another example of how America 'induced' a fear from within itself, which led Americans to action in the Vietnam War. In the late 1940's, Communism was spreading and gaining territory (Seeds of Conflict, 1999). Americans still view themselves as the 'arsenal of democracy' (Roosevelt, 1940) and that we have an obligation to establish democracy wherever possible. Therefore, when Communism began to spread, fear crept upon us. This "irrational" system of government cannot spread all over Southeast Asia, the government believed (Vietnam War, 2007). Although the United States lost the war against communism in Vietnam, it could be seen that what was feared did not happen (Vietnam War, 2007).

Although it was true that most of Southeastern Asia became communist states after the war, the communism did not threaten the various other democratic states or nations any more. Americans fought for a fear they need not have. This proved Lincoln right: All actions that we take upon a possible 'threat' are not in the others. It is within ourselves that we realize a threat. If we acted as if nothing happened, we would have done nothing and still have fared well, because we are so powerful as such.