Everyone knows that US Presidents Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy were killed in assassination attempts. However, few people know that another American warrior president ended his life in a similar way: we are talking about the 25th US President William McKinley.
Consider McKinley's journey to the presidency. Having received his law degree from Albany Law School (New York) and trained in the practice of law, in 1877 he became a congressman from the 17th arrondissement of his home state of Ohio and remained in this capacity until 1891. After moving to Washington, McKinley spoke a representative of an industry group interested in high protectionist tariffs. Thanks to his position on the issue and his support for the candidacy of James Sherman for the presidency in 1888, McKinley secured a seat on the House Budget Committee, and also became close to the influential Ohio businessman Marcus Hannah. In 1889, McKinley was elected chairman of the said committee and became the main author of the 1890 McKinley Tariff Bill, which set high import tariffs. The law slightly reduced duties on some types of goods and significantly (up to 18%) increased them on others. At the same time, he gave the president broad powers to raise and lower tariff rates for Latin American states for political reasons or in the form of reprisals. The influence of this law was great not only throughout America, but also in Europe, where many industries were severely affected, especially the textile industry in Germany, mother-of-pearl in Austria-Hungary, and the entire industry in Great Britain and Ireland. In the United States, he significantly reduced the import of goods from Europe and not only did not raise, as expected, but also lowered wages in many sectors.
With Hannah's support in 1891 and again in 1893, McKinley was elected governor of Ohio. Also with the active assistance of Hannah McKinley won the presidential election in 1896, which became one of the most acute in US history. McKinley received 271 electoral votes against 176 and more than 7.62 million votes out of approximately 13.6 million who took part in the elections. In doing so, he became the winner in 23 out of 45 states, beating his rival William Brian from Nebraska. Interestingly, in the 1900 presidential election, McKinley defeated the same rival with roughly the same results.
William McKinley
As president, McKinley continued to defend the interests of big business, and above all the owners of heavy industry enterprises, that is, weapons manufacturers.
It must be said that the "first bell" of American imperialism rang back in 1823, when President James Monroe, in his message to Congress, proclaimed the principles of US foreign policy, which in 1850 were called the "Monroe Doctrine." Chief among them was the principle of dividing the world into "American" and "European" systems and the proclamation of the idea of non-interference by the United States in the internal affairs of European states and non-interference of the latter in the internal affairs of American states (“America for Americans” principle). At the same time, there was a substantiation of the principle of the growth of the power of the United States depending on the annexation of new territories and the formation of new states, which testified to the expansionist aspirations of the United States. In general, the "Monroe Doctrine", developed by Secretary of State Richard Olney ("Olney Doctrine") in 1895, became the basis for the US claims to a leading position in the Western Hemisphere. McKinley began to implement these claims with claims in the Eastern Hemisphere.
When we call McKinley a warrior president, we do not mean his participation in the Second American Revolution, that is, the civil war of 1861-1865. We are talking about the wars unleashed during his presidency (1897-1901), namely the American-Spanish War (1898) and the American-Philippine War (1899-1902). During the McKinley presidency, the United States annexed the Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands (1898). As a result of these events, the Philippines became dependent on the United States and remained so until 1946. The islands of Guam (1898) and Puerto Rico (1898), which still remain US possessions, were also captured. Despite the fact that Cuba was proclaimed an independent state in 1902, the island until 1959 remained, in fact, a protectorate of the United States. Hawaii became the 50th US state in 1959. In addition to all of the above, Eastern Samoa was annexed in 1899. Thus, the United States at the end of the XIX century. became a state capable of carrying out transcontinental aggression with territorial conquests.
Obviously, preparing for new acts of aggression, McKinley was reorganizing the military and naval departments. The desire to spread US influence is evident from his speech, delivered on September 5, 1901, at the opening of the Pan American exhibition in Buffalo, New York. This is due to the significant increase in the influence of the United States in the world market due to the success of its industry and the emerging need not so much to protect its industry inside the country as to pave its way abroad.
But other presidents had a chance to implement their foreign policy plans, since McKinley died on September 14, 1901 at the age of 58 as a result of an assassination attempt made on him at the same exhibition on September 6 by 28-year-old unemployed anarchist of Polish origin Leon Czolgosh.
McKinley's foreign policy style was adopted by subsequent US presidents, including Nobel Peace Prize laureates Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama in 1906, 1919, 2002 and 2009, respectively. Thus, the ideology of the "big stick" formulated in 1904 by the next president, Theodore Roosevelt, became a direct continuation of McKinley's policy. By the way, this Roosevelt in 1901 was vice-president under McKinley. The essence of the "big stick" policy was the possibility of open US intervention in the internal affairs of Latin American states, both in the form of armed intervention and occupation of their territories, and in the establishment of economic and political control over them by concluding appropriate treaties.
The successes in the American-Spanish War stimulated the US intention to build the Panama Canal to assert its dominance in the Western Hemisphere. Already in November 1901, the United States entered into the Hay-Pounsfoot Treaty with the United Kingdom, according to which the United States received the exclusive right to build the Panama Canal (under the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, concluded in 1850, the named parties refused to acquire exclusive rights to the future channel and undertook to guarantee its neutrality).
Despite President Franklin Roosevelt's inauguration speech in 1933 of a "good neighbor" policy towards Latin American states, the United States has not abandoned its previous conquests. In all fairness, it must be said that in 1933 the occupation of Nicaragua, which began in 1912, ended, and in 1934, the occupation of Haiti, which took place since 1915. Starting with the next president, namely Harry Truman, elected in 1945 year, the leaders of the United States, with rare exceptions, determined their foreign policy by doctrines, the essence of which boiled down to one thing: the desire for US dominance in a particular region of the world.
By the way, McKinley by religion belonged to the Methodist Church, which at one time had a significant influence on the Baptist doctrine, which was adhered to by Presidents Truman and Clinton (the bombing of Japan in 1945 and Yugoslavia in 1999, respectively).
It remains to express the hope that President Donald Trump will build his foreign policy on completely different principles than his predecessors.
