Texas and the History of American Foreign Policy

Abstract

Joseph A. Fry argues that regional influence helps explain the internal dynamics of American foreign policy, and understanding the connection between regions and foreign policy requires a holistic and inclusive approach. The history of Texas supports both contentions but also suggests that regional influence has been more nuanced and varied than Fry implies. Texas lies culturally and geographically between Kansas City and Mexico City, between Mississippi and California, and between the Gulf of Mexico and the Rocky Mountains. As such, it has never been exclusively Southern, Western, or exceptional. Instead, connecting cords of influence stretched across multiple regional, national, and international borders; and cooperation and conflict between the diverse people who came to Texas from beyond those borders constructed and reconstructed the culture and identity of Texas over time. That shifting identity and those cords of influence shaped the impact of Texas and Texans on American foreign relations, and as comes clear in examining the Mexican War, World War I, and Vietnam, understanding the influence of those factors qualifies and expands Fry's discussion of internal dynamics and inclusiveness.