Illusions of Managing History: The Enduring Relevance of Reinhold Niebuhr

Abstract

January/February 2008 Historically Speaking 23 Illusions of Managing History: The Enduring Relevance of Reinhold Niebuhr* AndrewJ. Bacevich Reinhold Niebuhr, a towering presence in American intellectual life from the 1930s through the 1960s, thought deeply about the dilemmas confronting the United States as a consequence of its emergence as a global superpower. The truths he spoke are uncomfortable ones. They do not easily translate into sound bites suitable for the Sunday morning talk shows. Nor do they offer material from which to weave the sort of stump speech likely to boost the poll numbers of your favorite candidate in Iowa or New Hampshire. Four of those truths merit particular attention at present. They are the persistent sin of American Exceptionalism; the indecipherability of history; the false allure of simple solutions; and, finally, the imperative of appreciating the limits of power. One persistent theme of Niebuhr's writings on foreign policy concerns the difficulty that Americans have in seeing themselves as they really are. "Perhaps the most significant moral characteristic of a nation," he declared in 1932, "is its hypocrisy."' Niebuhr did not exempt his own nation from that judgment. The chief distinguishing feature of American hypocrisy lies in the conviction that America's very founding was a providential act, both an expression of divine favor and a summons to serve as God's chosen instrument . The Anglo-American colonists settling these shores, according to Niebuhr, saw it as America 's purpose "to make a new beginning in a corrupt world." They believed "that we had been called out by God to create a new humanity."2They believed further that this covenant with God marked America as a new Israel. As a Chosen People possessingwhat Niebuhr referred to as a "Messianic consciousness," Americans came to see themselves as set apart, their motives irreproachable , their actions not to be judged by standards applied to others." "Every nation has its own form of spiritual pride," Niebuhr observed in The Irony of American History. "Our version is that our nation turned its back upon the vices of Europe and made a new beginning." Even after World War II, he wrote, the United States remained "an adolescent nation , with illusions of childlike innocency."3 Indeed, the outcome of World War II, vaulting the United States to the apex of world power, seemed to affirm that the nation enjoyed God's favor and was doing God's work. Such illusions have proven remarkably durable. * On October 9, 2007, AndrewJ. Bacevich delivered Boston University 's 2007 University Lecture. We publish a substantial excerpt of the lecture here; an expanded version of the lecture appeared in theJanuary 2008 issue of WorldAffairs. Reinhold Niebuhr speaking at the Union Theological Seminary , February 1, 1959. (Photo by Walter Sanders/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images). We see them in the way that President Bush, certain of the purity of U.S. intentions in Iraq, shrugs off responsibility for the calamitous consequences ensuing from his decision to invade that country. We see them also in the way that the administration insists thatAbu Ghraib or Guantanamo or the policy of secret rendition that delivers suspected terrorists into the hands of torturers in no way compromises U.S. claims of support for human rights and die rule of law. It follows that only cynics or scoundrels would dare suggest that more sordid considerations might have influenced the American choice for war or that incidents like Abu Ghraib signify something other than simply misconduct by a handful of aberrant soldiers . As Niebuhr wrote, when we swathe ourselves in self-regard, it's but a short step to concluding that "onlymalice could prompt criticism of anyof ouractions "—an insight that goes far to explain the outrage expressed by senior U.S. officials back in 2003 when "Old Europe" declined to endorse the war.' In Niebuhr's view, America's rise to power derived less from divine favor than from good fortune combined with a fierce determination to convert that good fortune into wealth and power. The good fortune —Niebuhr referred to it as "America, rocking in the cradle of its continental security"—came in the form of a vast landscape, rich in resources, ripe for exploitation , and...