“The World Must Be Made Safe
for Democracy.”
Wilson, Kennan, & Niebuhr
Political Science 110EB
Woodrow Wilson – Declaration of War
Speech (1917)
• “The present German submarine warfare against
commerce is a warfare against mankind. It is a
war against all nations… The challenge is to all
mankind.”
• “There is one choice we cannot make, we are
incapable of making: we will not choose the path
of submission and suffer the most sacred rights of
our Nation and our people to be ignored or
violated. The wrongs against which we now array
ourselves are no common wrongs; they cut to the
very roots of human life.”
2
• Our object now, as then, is to vindicate the
principles of peace and justice in the life of the
world as against selfish and autocratic power
and to set up amongst the really free and selfgoverned peoples of the world such a concert
of purpose and of action as will henceforth
insure the observance of those principles.
3
• We have no quarrel with the German people. We have
no feeling towards them but one of sympathy and
friendship. It was not upon their impulse that their
government acted in entering this war. It was not with
their previous knowledge or approval.
• It was a war determined upon as wars used to be
determined upon in the old, unhappy days when peoples
were nowhere consulted by their rules and wars were
provoked and waged in the interest of dynasties or of little
groups of ambitious men who were accustomed to use
their fellow men as pawns and tools.
4
• “Now that we see the facts with no veil of false pretence
about them, to fight thus for the ultimate peace of the
world and for the liberation of its peoples, the German
peoples included: for the rights of nations great and small
and the privilege of men everywhere to choose their way of
life and of obedience.”
– “The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must
be planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty. We
have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no
dominion. We seek no indemnities for ourselves, no material
compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely make. We are
but one of the champions of the rights of mankind. We shall be
satisfied when those rights have been made as secure as the
faith and the freedom of nations can make them.”
5
• The world must be made safe for democracy. Its
peace must be planted upon the tested
foundations of political liberty. We have no
selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no
dominion. We seek no indemnities for ourselves,
no material compensation for the sacrifices we
shall freely make. We are but one of the
champions of the rights of mankind. We shall be
satisfied when those rights have been made as
secure as the faith and the freedom of nations
can make them.
6
• But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall
fight for the things which we have always carried nearest
our hearts - for democracy, for the right of those who
submit to authority to have a voice in their own
Governments, for the rights and liberties of small nations,
for a universal dominion of right by such a concert of free
peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and
make the world itself at last free.
– To such a task we can dedicate our lives and our fortunes,
everything that we are and everything that we have, with the
pride of those who know that the day has come when America
is privileged to spend her blood and her might for the principles
that gave her birth and happiness and the peace which she has
treasured. God helping her, she can do no other.
7
George F. Kennan - Sources of Soviet
Conduct (1947)
• “Easily persuaded of their own doctrinaire
"rightness," they insisted on the submission or
destruction of all competing power.”
• “Let it be stressed again that subjectively these men
probably did not seek absolutism for its own sake.
They doubtless believed -- and found it easy to believe
-- that they alone knew what was good for society and
that they would accomplish that good once their
power was secure and unchallengeable. But in seeking
that security of their own rule they were prepared to
recognize no restrictions, either of God or man, on the
character of their methods.”
8
• In these circumstances it is clear that the main
element of any United States policy toward the
Soviet Union must be that of long-term, patient
but firm and vigilant containment of Russian
expansive tendencies. It is important to note,
however, that such a policy has nothing to do
with outward histrionics: with threats or
blustering or superfluous gestures of outward
"toughness.”
– Containment
9
• “But if the ideology convinces the rulers of Russia
that truth is on their side and they they can
therefore afford to wait, those of us on whom
that ideology has no claim are free to examine
objectively the validity of that premise.
– It is clear that the United States cannot expect in the
foreseeable future to enjoy political intimacy with the
Soviet regime. It must continue to regard the Soviet
Union as a rival, not a partner, in the political arena.”
• Two communities of belief that cannot be reconciled
10
• Exhibitions of indecision, disunity and internal
disintegration within this country have an
exhilarating effect on the whole Communist
movement. At each evidence of these tendencies,
a thrill of hope and excitement goes through the
Communist world; a new jauntiness can be noted
in the Moscow tread; new groups of foreign
supporters climb on to what they can only view
as the band wagon of international politics; and
Russian pressure increases all along the line in
international affairs.
11
• The thoughtful observer of Russian-American
relations will find no cause for complaint in the
Kremlin's challenge to American society. He will
rather experience a certain gratitude to a
Providence which, by providing the American
people with this implacable challenge, has made
their entire security as a nation dependent on
their pulling themselves together and accepting
the responsibilities of moral and political
leadership that history plainly intended them to
bear.
12
Reinhold Niebuhr
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1892-1971
Labor activist
Pacifist in youth
Anti-communist
Theologian & public
intellectual
• “Christian realism” & just
war theory
• Critic of Vietnam war
13
Core Themes
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Original sin
Humility
The inevitability of war
Morality + politics = responsibility
American history characterized by irony
“Christian realism”
– Vs. realism
– Vs. idealism
14
Key Terms
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Pathetic
Tragic
Ironic
Sin
Bourgeois liberalism
Communism
15
The pathetic
• Pathos
• “Pathos is that element in an historic situation which elicits
pity, but neither deserves admiration which elicits pity, but
neither deserves admiration nor warrants contrition.” (xxiii)
– Pity the appropriate response of the spectator
– No positive or negative moral attribution
• “Pathos arises from fortuitous cross-purposes and
confusions in life for which no reason can be given, or guilt
ascribed. Suffering caused by purely natural evil is the
clearest instance of the purely pathetic.” (xxiii)
– No reason
– Cancer, earthquakes, etc.
16
The tragic
• Tragōidia
• “The tragic element in a human situation is
constituted of a conscious choices of evil for
the sake of good. If men or nations do evil in
a good cause; if they cover themselves with
guilt in order to fulfill some high
responsibility; or if they sacrifice some high
value for the sake of a higher or equal one
they make a tragic choice.” (xxiii)
17
The tragic
• Tragedy is a choice between conflicting goods
– Lesser evils, only bad choices
• An admission, not a denial, of guilt
– A realization that the lesser evil remains evil
• No such thing as a “tragic flaw”
18
The tragic
• Tragōidia
– “The tragic element in a human situation is
constituted of a conscious choices of evil for the
sake of good. If men or nations do evil in a good
cause; if they cover themselves with guilt in order
to fulfill some high responsibility; or if they
sacrifice some high value for the sake of a higher
or equal one they make a tragic choice.” (xxiii)
• Tragedy is a choice between conflicting goods
– Lesser evils, only bad choices
19
The tragic
• An admission, not a denial, of guilt
– A realization that the lesser evil remains evil
• No such thing as a “tragic flaw”
• “Tragedy elicits admiration as well as pity
because it combines nobility with guilt.” (xxiii)
– The appropriate response of the spectator to tragedy
is pity for the agent in the tragic situation, admiration
for its moral responsibility, and condemnation for its
guilt.
– For Niebuhr, the Cold War is tragic
20
The ironic
• Eirōneía (feigned ignorance)
• “Irony consists of apparently fortuitous incongruities in
life which are discovered, upon closer examination, to
not be merely fortuitous.” (xxiv)
– An element of the comic, but more than comic. Laughter,
but also realization & insight.
• Different from pathetic situations in that the actor
involved bears responsibility for the situation.
• Different from tragedy in that the responsibility is due
to an unconscious weakness rather than a conscious
decision.
21
The ironic
• Strength becoming weakness due to vanity of
strength = ironic
– Realization of ironic complicity must lead to
“abatement of pretension, which means
contrition; or it leads to a desperate accentuation
of the vanities to the point where irony turns into
pure evil.” (xxiv)
• Niebuhr understands Christianity as inherently
ironic.
– Ex) The Crucifixion as the final victory of Christ
22
Sin
• More than just doing bad things.
• Doctrine of original sin, roots in Augustine
• Humans inherently, not just tendentially,
corrupt.
• Resultantly, all human efforts must be
imperfect
• Humility thus a necessity
23
Bourgeois liberalism
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Capitalist
Competitive elections
Rights-based legal system
Tendency to embrace the perfectibility of
humanity, rejecting universality of sin
• Tendency to pretend innocence
24
Communism
• For Niebuhr, this means Soviet communism
• Claim to possession of absolute knowledge,
and thus mastery, of historical processes.
• Led by the vanguard, a group that best
understands the historical dialectic, and thus
by definition acts for the benefit of the
proletariat
• Historical processes make final victory of
communism inevitable.
25
The limits of freedom
• Extravagant emphasis on individual freedom
– For Niebuhr:
• The freedom to completely make oneself is a falsehood
• Humans occur within societies, and are partly made by them
• In our culture, emphasis on overt, rather than covert,
forms of power.
• “Since property is a form of power, it cannot be
unambiguously a source of social peace and justice. For
every form of power, when inordinate or irresponsible,
can be a tool of oppression or injustice.” (104)
– Thus, too much emphasis on voluntarism
26
The limits of control
• “Despite the constant emphasis upon the ‘dignity of man’ in our
own liberal culture, its predominant naturalistic bias frequently
results in views of human nature in which the dignity of man is not
very clear.” (6)
– Science as a worldview
– The human as creature
• The acknowledgement of the reality of the free self “introduces an
unpredictable and incalculable element into the causal sequence. It
is therefore embarrassing to an scientific scheme.” (8)
– The measurable as the real
– The human as object, not subject. Humans not essentially different
from molecules.
– Too much emphasis on control
27
• For Niebuhr, each of these things is bad
– Denies limits of human condition, which for his both as creature
and creator
– Both fantasies of total control, ignoring the limitations of human
power and knowledge
• Fortunately for Americans, their creed is incoherent, and
these two positions counteract each other, leading to
pragmatic adjustment
– Equilibrating power
• The menace of communism is in its coherency, which
enhances the power of its dogma
• Niebuhr sees in Communism a kind of atheistic religion,
with Russia as its holy land.
28
The Problem with Communism
• For Niebuhr
– Communism describes property (ownership) as the sole source of
power
– Political power (government) is a front for this power
– Thus, only the property-less class (the proletariat) is disinterested, and
can act in the universal interest
• Since property is for Communists the only form of power, the property-less
have no particular interests to defend
• The vanguard are the first group to achieve revolutionary class
consciousness, comprehending the laws of history
• Thus, they act in the interest of all humanity.
• Moreover, they act freely: finally understanding the laws of history,
they can act in understanding of true reality
– N. sees here a contradiction: if everything is historically determined,
how can action be free?
29
The Problem with Communism
• Thus, the Soviet government must adopt an
attitude of hostility toward all other forms of
government, denying their legitimacy and
viewing them as destined for overthrow
• The basic problem of the Soviets, for Niebuhr, is
pride
– Believe in the absolute truth of their dogma
– Embrace vanguard (Soviet gov’t) as infallible
• Moral reasoning by definition is for Niebuhr inherently
problematic, reflecting pride.
• “A too confident sense of justice always leads to injustice.”
(138)
30
The Problem with Communism
• America shares these messianic impulses, but
they have been checked by historical
contingency
– Ironically, America is less free at its moment of
greatest power than it was in its fragile infancy
– But pretensions to innocence, to newness, remain
• Realists, Idealists
31
Against “Realism”
• Cold War realists argued that any means was
justified in combating Communist nations
– Vanity, a pretense that America is so good as to
legitimate any means
– “Loyalty to the community is... Morally tolerable
only if it includes values wider than those of teh
community.” (37)
– For Niebuhr, communities cannot be moral,
cannot transcend themselves.
32
Against “Idealism”
• For Niebuhr, the idea that the nation can
withdraw from the world, or that all
disagreements can be talked out.
– The first prizes moral purity over moral responsibility
– The second is naive in its refusal to acknowledge the
Communist threat
• Moral behavior requires responsible engagement
w/the world, which will sometimes mean
compromised morality
– To be good, one cannot be pure.
33
Niebuhr’s Religious Validation of
Politics
• “Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our
lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope.
– Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete
sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must
be saved by faith.
• Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished
alone; therefore we are saved by love.
– No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our
friend or foe as it is from our standpoint. Therefore, we must be
saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness.” (63)
• A critical dimension not only on politics, but on the self.
• Morality not relative, but our understanding of it is flawed.
34
• “Strangely enough, none of the insights
derived from this faith are finally contradictory
to our own purpose and duty of preserving
our civilization. They are, in fact, prerequisites
for saving it.”
35
• “Strangely enough, none of the insights derived
from this faith are finally contradictory to our
own purpose and duty of preserving our
civilization. They are, in fact, prerequisites for
saving it.”
• If the US is destroyed, the “primary cause would
be that the strength of a giant nation was
directed by eyes too blind to see all the hazards
of the struggle; and the blindness would be
induced not by some accident of nature or
history but by hatred & vainglory.” (174)
36