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 Editorials | Opinions | May 2007 
Bush Can Hope to be Like Polk
 Joseph Wheelan - newsobserver.com
| | Like Bush, Polk irritably accused Congress, in dragging its feet on funding, of placing the troops in jeopardy. If there had been polls in 1847, Polk's approval rating likely would have rivaled Bush's. |
President George W. Bush, hoping posterity will be kinder to him than the present day, sometimes points to Harry Truman as a man who was unappreciated until years after his presidency.
But has he considered James K. Polk, the 11th president?
Bush and Polk have much in common. Both launched wars of invasion - Polk in Mexico in 1846, Bush in Iraq in 2003 - using dubious pretexts. Bush's futile quest for weapons of mass destruction likely masked other, unacknowledged purposes, just as Polk's ostensible desire to avenge "American blood on American soil" concealed his true goal of obtaining California and its magnificent Pacific ports.
When Mexico refused to sell California, Polk sent U.S. troops to the disputed U.S.-Mexican border, where inevitably they clashed with Mexican soldiers. Polk anticipated the war would last just a few months with scant casualties, resulting in a treaty in which Mexico ceded California. But the war continued for 21 months and cost more than 12,000 American lives. It also launched the lacerating debate over slavery that culminated in the Civil War.
Strong initial public support for both the Mexican and Iraq wars began to ebb after several months. Suspicions mounted over the Mexican War's questionable origins, as did skepticism about the Bush administration's intelligence when no WMDs were found. While the growing ranks of Mexican War opponents carefully avouched their support for the troops, but not the policy, war supporters maligned them as traitors to the cause. Does this sound familiar?
Mexico and Iraq cost both presidents control of the House of Representatives during midterm elections, respectively, in 1846 and 2006. The newly constituted Houses promptly launched investigations and inquiries, and demanded reams of documents. Polk's House of Representatives even passed a resolution condemning the Mexican War as unconstitutionally begun - by the president. Bush's House hasn't done that yet, but, like its predecessor, it has delayed war funding.
And like Bush, Polk irritably accused Congress, in dragging its feet on funding, of placing the troops in jeopardy. If there had been polls in 1847, Polk's approval rating likely would have rivaled Bush's.
Unlike Bush, who expects the U.S. presence in Iraq to continue into the next administration, Polk tidily wrapped up the Mexican War during his term. The February 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was followed by the departure from Mexico four months later of the last U.S. troops (the Polk administration was uninterested in whether Mexico became a democracy, a dictatorship or descended into anarchy).
Moreover, the treaty transferred to the United States 530,000 square miles of Mexican territory - the future states of California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and parts of Colorado and Wyoming - for just $18 million, or 37 cents per square mile. It was the second-best land bargain in U.S. history, the first being the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, 828,000 square miles costing $15 million.
Even though Polk left the White House in 1849 after having guided America to her "Manifest Destiny" - a nation stretching from "sea to shining sea" - he was derogated throughout the 19th century. Historians and many of the war's young soldiers, more than 50 of whom became generals during the Civil War 15 years later (and three of them future presidents), believed that America's behavior toward Mexico was morally reprehensible.
Only with the rise of U.S. nationalism during the early 20th century did Polk's standing reach its proper level. Indeed, he was an amazingly effective president, as Truman observed in ranking Polk with George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Andrew Jackson: "He said exactly what he was going to do and he did it." Today, historians routinely rank Polk, who was born in Mecklenburg County and graduated with "first honors" in 1818 from the University of North Carolina, among the 10 best presidents.
Can George W. Bush reasonably hope for the redemption that eventually found James K. Polk? Consider this: It took 70 years to resuscitate Polk's reputation - and he accomplished, as he was wont to do, exactly what he set out to do, although it took a year and a half longer than he had expected.
While Polk was able to leave Mexico City with a munificent treaty and without concerning himself with the messy aftermath, Iraq's aftermath is the very point. Bush has set a high bar in Iraq: a stable democracy that will encourage Iraq's neighbors to depart from their despotic traditions. Suffice it to say that this has been extremely difficult.
His legacy depends on Iraq becoming a democratic nation in which religious and tribal differences are resolved by words and not bullets. If it does not, no amount of time will redeem the historical verdict on the Bush administration.
Joseph Wheelan is the author of the just-released "Invading Mexico: America's Continental Dream and the Mexican War, 1846-1848." |
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