To the Editor:
Re “U.S. Policy’s Focus Turns From Freedom to Profits” (news article, Dec. 7):
The Trump administration just released its 2025 National Security Strategy, which some have called “the Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine.” The document illustrates how little this administration understands history.
The Monroe Doctrine of 1823 laid out U.S. policies and priorities regarding the Western Hemisphere in a world that was dramatically different from the world today. The United States was then a new country seeking its place in the world, and that included warning the European nations, the major powers, that this continent was part of our “sphere of influence.”
It was not an opportunity to “restore American pre-eminence in the Western Hemisphere,” as the new Trump document puts it, nor was it a way to hunt for “major business opportunities.” Rather, in the words of Monroe, it was the “true policy of the United States to leave the parties to themselves.”
The security strategy outlined by this administration is less about ensuring the security of this country than it is about ways to make money.
Previous administrations have used this congressionally mandated document to make clear the United States position in the world, outline potential threats and, if necessary, the use of the U.S. military as a force for good.
As noted in your article, the document “codifies Mr. Trump’s well-established aversion to Europe’s liberal governments and his readiness to overlook human rights abuses.” But the document also ignores the fact that it was the United States and Europe that established the liberal democratic order that has kept the peace since the end of World War II.
Upsetting that order, in pursuit of money without any moral compass or strategic vision, is a recipe for little gain for the United States or other countries except China and Russia, which will be the beneficiaries of these changes.
Joyce P. Kaufman June Lake, Calif. The writer is the director of the Women, Peace and Security Program at the Institute for World Affairs in Washington, D.C., and the author of “A Concise History of U.S. Foreign Policy.”
To the Editor:
Re “‘Civilizational Erasure’ for Europe, U.S. Claims” (front page, Dec. 6):
In his recently released 33-page national security document, filled with bombastic, unsolicited advice for our European allies, President Trump accuses the European Union, in your article’s words, “of censoring free speech and trampling on basic principles of democracy to suppress political opposition.”
What stunning irony — this from a president who, in his zeal to root out woke, has removed books from libraries, made “content corrections” of museum exhibitions, asserted control over college syllabuses (and, more alarmingly, over universities) and threatened to sue, fire or indict civil servants who happen to question his dictates.
The Trump document warns Europe that it is on the path to becoming “unrecognizable” because of immigration policies. It is we Americans, who once took our freedoms for granted, who are now living in an unrecognizable world.
Cathy Bernard New York
Hollywood Reflects Culture
To the Editor:
In “Say Goodbye to Hollywood,” by Roy Price (Opinion guest essay, Dec. 8), which laments and warns about the consequences of monopolization, the Hollywood enterprise is referred to as a “culture-producing industry.”
I have long believed that Hollywood is culture-reflecting, not culture-producing. Decisions to produce and release a product are made with box office as a key factor. Actual or anticipated box office response depends largely on the prevailing cultural taste of ticket buyers at a given time.
Arthur M. Halpern Rockville, Md.
Fighting in the Family
To the Editor:
I found “Life Is Too Short to Fight With Your Family,” by Karl Pillemer and Mel Robbins (Opinion guest essay, Nov. 27), to be condescending and insensitive to what many of us have experienced or are experiencing.
It all but ignores the problem that arises when one family is willing to move past a particular disagreement and another family member is not.
When one family member simply swallows everything another dishes out in the name of keeping the peace, that family member isn’t preserving a real relationship; he is simply making himself a doormat for continued abuse!
Mark P. Kessinger New York
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