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Article: Wilsonian Missionary Diplomacy
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- Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy
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Wilsonian Missionary Diplomacy
Roger R. Trask
"Missionary diplomacy" is a descriptive label often applied to the policies and practices of the United States in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean during the presidency of Woodrow Wilson (1913
–
1921). According to Arthur S. Link in
Wilson: The New Freedom
(p. 278), "[Secretary of State William Jennings] Bryan and Wilson were both fundamentally missionaries of democracy, driven by inner compulsions to give other peoples the blessings of democracy and inspired by the confidence that they knew better how to promote the peace and well-being of other countries than did the leaders of those countries themselves." Wilson ...