Photograph Source: The White House – Public Domain

Pragmatic: Reasonable, practical, logical, workable. Designed to compliment.

“President Trump’s approach in Latin America appears pragmatic.” (New York Times, November 18, 2025, front page caption.) “Mr. Trump’s approach appears purely pragmatic.” (NYT front page news story, “Trump sees U.S. as Boss of Americas,” November 16, 2025.)

Since the declaration of the Monroe Doctrine in 1823, the United States has pursued a monopoly on security concerns regarding Central and South America. The United States lacked the military power to enforce this policy in the 19th century, but ever since the Spanish-American War in 1898 there has been widespread use of U.S. military power to assure domination of the area.

The policy of political and military dominance enabled the building of the Panama Canal early in the 20th century. Now Donald Trump’s has threatened to regain the canal that President Jimmy Carter had given to Panama in 1977. Hardly pragmatic.

At various times, the United States has used covert action to force regime change in the hemisphere. President Dwight Eisenhower pursued such a policy in Guatemala in 1954; President Lyndon Johnson took advantage of the weakness of the Dominican Republic in 1965; and President Richard Nixon used the Central Intelligence Agency........

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