Decisions on American Armed Intervention: Lebanon, Dominican Republic, and Grenada
Like many standards of international conduct, the principle of nonintervention in the domestic affairs of other nations has often been honored more in the the breach than in the observance, not least by the United States. For half a century since Theodore Roosevelt's corollary to the Monroe Doctrine gave way to the Good Neighbor policy of his cousin Franklin, the United States has officially espoused nonintervention as a diplomatic norm; yet from the Truman Doctrine to the Reagan Doctrine, American presidents have consistently claimed the right to protect the interests of the "free world" against communism, even when such protection implies intervention abroad. A strong argument can be made, and often has been, that the United States has been more interventionist since it adopted nonintervention as stated policy than it ever was before. Still, styles change, and with the exceptions of Korea and Vietnam, which constitute a class by themselves, the distinctive tactic of Big Stick diplomacy the landing of marines has fallen into relative disuse. Postwar American intervention has typically been covert (through the CIA) or indirect (through military and economic aid). Overt and direct applications of military force have been rare. Again excepting Korea and