we've never had such peace, such prosperity as when the American government was on vacation.
gore vidal
GV: Our first deliberate imperial president, (Jefferson was a reluctant imperialist), was Theodore Roosevelt, and he was looking around for more property to add to the US, which is where Cuba comes in. Theodore Roosevelt was ambitious and very imperial. In the summer recess of those golden days (I was brought up in Washington DC) the heat was so great that the entire government left town, we've never had such peace, such prosperity as when the American government was on vacation. During that time however, something happened on this island when a certain battle ship of the US was sunk and the yellow press of William Randolph Hearst blamed it on the Cubans, because in back of the Cubans was the Spanish Empire which was our real target. Cuba was used to inspire an anti-Spain sentiment that would justify the involvement of the US in the war. Hearst claimed that he had made it up, but it was actually Teddy Roosevelt who pulled the strings of those events. First as William McKinley's vice president, and later, when he died, as president of the United States. So, Roosevelt and several friends, one of them Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, very powerful in the Senate; and another one, Henry Adams, our great philosopher of history, they decided that we really should expand. Adams said, "Whoever controls Shanxi province in China"-which is now Manchuria and parts of Korea-"controls the world," because it is the richest section in minerals, in mining, in energy and the Chinese empire was crashing. All of Europe was trying to get a piece of China and we decided we'd get our piece.
"I'm Jealous of Cuba": An Interview with Gore Vidal
GV: Our first deliberate imperial president, (Jefferson was a reluctant imperialist), was Theodore Roosevelt, and he was looking around for more property to add to the US, which is where Cuba comes in. Theodore Roosevelt was ambitious and very imperial. In the summer recess of those golden days (I was brought up in Washington DC) the heat was so great that the entire government left town, we've never had such peace, such prosperity as when the American government was on vacation. During that time however, something happened on this island when a certain battle ship of the US was sunk and the yellow press of William Randolph Hearst blamed it on the Cubans, because in back of the Cubans was the Spanish Empire which was our real target. Cuba was used to inspire an anti-Spain sentiment that would justify the involvement of the US in the war. Hearst claimed that he had made it up, but it was actually Teddy Roosevelt who pulled the strings of those events. First as William McKinley's vice president, and later, when he died, as president of the United States. So, Roosevelt and several friends, one of them Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, very powerful in the Senate; and another one, Henry Adams, our great philosopher of history, they decided that we really should expand. Adams said, "Whoever controls Shanxi province in China"-which is now Manchuria and parts of Korea-"controls the world," because it is the richest section in minerals, in mining, in energy and the Chinese empire was crashing. All of Europe was trying to get a piece of China and we decided we'd get our piece.
"I'm Jealous of Cuba": An Interview with Gore Vidal
