Program Showcase

Stephen Kinzer - The True Flag: Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, & the Birth of American Empire

Mendocino County Public Broadcasting | By Joy LaClaire

Published January 10, 2018 at 3:09 PM PST

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At first, Twain supported American intervention to liberate the Cuban people.

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"With America happily at peace during the 1890s, Roosevelt racked his brain to find a possible enemy. "I should welcome almost any war, for I think this country needs one," he wrote in 1895.

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In 1893 the U.S. plunged into the worst depression its people had ever known. Business & political leaders saw only 1 way out of this crisis: overseas markets.

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After it became clear that the U.S. did not intend to leave its "Empires of Islands" Guam, Hawaii, Cuba, Phillipines & Puerto Rico, he became a leading Anti-Imperialist.

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Kermit Roosevelt, Jr. was the grandson of Theodore Roosevelt. He orchestrated the coup against democratically elected Iranian Prime Minister, Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953

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It was only the fifth year of The CIA's existence, after Truman & the UN Security Council refused to interfere, that Eisenhower & the Dulles brothers over-ruled State Dept. experts & the CIA Iran chief to depose Mossadegh.