The Turkey and the Eagle

Sound Bite

What can account for the U.S. tendency toward intervention overseas? In 1784 Benjamin Franklin advocated choosing the industrious, home-loving wild turkey rather than the thieving, wide-ranging bald eagle as the symbol of the United States. Franklin lost that debate, and since then advocates of cooperation as America's global role have been similarly losing their struggle with advocates of U.S. domination.

The author recounts that struggle, with particular emphasis on the 30 years he spent working in and around Congress with groups opposed to U.S. support for repressive yet "friendly" regimes. He then proposes electoral reforms and a revolution in Americans' attitudes that would place our values rather than corporate and strategic interests at the core of our global purpose.

About the Book

This book is about about how U.S. foreign policy is decided. It shows how those who advocate basing our international relations on progress toward democracy face a struggle in Washington, which is packed with advocates supporting repressive regimes in return for economic benefits (trade, investment, and mineral resources) and military benefits (access to their territory for U.S. armed and covert forces).

By arguing that the outcome of this struggle is determined by the average citizen's position, the book makes readers participants rather than observers. By arguing that a cultural pump constantly promotes a vision of American domination as a positive force in the world, it encourages readers to analyze the day-to-day effect of this vision on their own perceptions.

Intended for a general audience, the book features enough inside tales and colorful characters to intrigue the casual reader, but also provides the clear themes and historical context needed for a high school or college text on U.S. policy after World War II toward the colonized, and then post-colonial countries.

Introduction

In 1784 Benjamin Franklin advocated choosing the industrious, home-loving wild turkey rather than the thieving, wide-ranging bald eagle as the symbol of the United States. Franklin lost that debate, and since then advocates of cooperation as America's global role have been similarly losing their struggle with advocates of U.S. domination.

The author recounts that struggle, with particular emphasis on the 30 years he spent working in and around Congress with groups opposed to U.S. support for repressive yet "friendly" regimes. He then proposes electoral reforms and a revolution in Americans' attitudes that would place our values rather than corporate and strategic interests at the core of our global purpose.

The Turkey and the Eagle: The Struggle for America's Global Role is about not just the effects of U.S. foreign policy but how it is made. It shows how advocates of basing U.S. relations on progress toward democracy must struggle in Washington those who advocate supporting repressive regimes in return for economic benefits such as trade, investment, and mineral resources — and military benefits such as access to their territory for U.S. armed and covert forces.

By arguing that the outcome of this struggle is determined by the average citizen's position, the book makes readers participants rather than observers. By arguing that a "cultural pump" constantly promotes a vision of American domination as a positive force in the world, it encourages readers to analyze the day-to-day effect of this vision on their own perceptions.

The author tells the story of how US politics became mired in the assumption of domination, first toward the colonized, and then post-colonial, countries. And he offers a way for advocates of a foreign policy of cooperation to change that assumption. That is the real issue.

Rossiter, who made teaching his second career, shares inside tales and colorful characters that make the reading a pleasure but also provides the clear themes and historical context needed for a high school or college text on U.S. policy after World War II.