Robert A. Taft, Isolationist

"Power is not a toy we give to good children. It is a weapon. And the strong man takes it and uses it. If you don't go down there and beat Joe Cantwell with this very dirty stick, then you've got no business in the big league. Because if you don't fight, the job is not for you. And it never will be."
--President Art Hockstader (The Best Man)

Nice article on Robert A. Taft. Born in Cincinnati and son of former president and chief justice William Howard Taft, Robert Taft served as a US senator from 1939 until his 1953 death from cancer.

Taft's term spanned the end of the New Deal through World War II to the Korean War and start of the Cold War. Taft, a Republican, was labeled an 'isolationist' because of his opposition to US involvement in wars and other foreign affairs grounded in aggression.

Such a position would put him at odds with the mainstream GOP today--a party with a general prediliction for meddling in foreign affairs and in war. In fact, Taft's non-interventionist position conflicted with many Republican views of his day as well, and likely costed him critical support in his several attempts to obtain his party's nomination for president.

Taft began his career as a vocal critic of the New Deal and FDR's back door foreign policy. FDR publicly proclaimed intentions to stay out of foreign conflicts, a policy clearly supported by the American people, while privately supporting efforts in Britain and elsewhere that encouraged war.

Taft warned that entering wars and military alliances, including NATO, would compromise liberty and standard of living at home. He cautioned that helping struggling foreign democracies and fighting totalitarian regimes could easily cause the US to slip into an 'empire' role similar to the 19th century Britain. The US might become the world's policeman, and take exception to any matter of consequence anywhere in the world that was executed without first asking America's advice.

Years after Taft's death during the angst of the Vietnam War, a Washington Post columnist reflected on Taft's non-interventist positions. "It turns out that Taft was right on every question all the way from inflation to the terrible demoralization of the troops."

Taft's foreign policy, the columist said, "was a way to defend the country without destroying it, a way to be part of the world without running it."

Reminiscent of one of the principles uttered by our founding ancestors: Free trade with all, entangling alliances with none.