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The former senator and presidential candidate offers a provocative new assessment of the first "national security president" James Monroe is remembered today primarily for two things: for being the last of the "Virginia Dynasty"―following George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison―and for issuing the Monroe Doctrine, his statement of principles in 1823 that the western hemisphere was to be considered closed to European intervention. But Gary Hart sees Monroe as a president ahead of his time, whose priorities and accomplishments in establishing America's "national security" have a great deal in common with chief executives of our own time. Unlike his predecessors Jefferson and Madison, Monroe was at his core a military man. He joined the Continental Army at the age of seventeen and served with distinction in many pivotal battles. (He is prominently featured at Washington's side in the iconic painting Washington Crossing the Delaware.) And throughout his career as a senator, governor, ambassador, secretary of state, secretary of war, and president, he never lost sight of the fact that without secure borders and friendly relations with neighbors, the American people could never be truly safe in their independence. As president he embarked on an ambitious series of treaties, annexations, and military confrontations that would secure America's homeland against foreign attack for nearly two hundred years. Hart details the accomplishments and priorities of this forward-looking president, whose security concerns clearly echo those we face in our time.
Author
There is more than one author with this name Gary Hart represented the state of Colorado in the U.S. Senate from 1975 until 1987. He is the Wirth Chair professor at the University of Colorado, chairs both the Council for a Livable World and the American Security Project, is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and he was cochair of the U.S. Commission on National Security for the 21st Century. The commission performed the most comprehensive review of national security since 1947, predicted the terrorist attacks on America, and proposed a sweeping overhaul of U.S. national security structures and policies for the post-Cold War century and the age of terrorism. Senator Hart is the author of 17 books, including The Courage of Our Convictions: A Manifesto for Democrats, The Shield and the Cloak: Security in the Commons, and God and Caesar in America: An Essay on Religion and Politics. Read his blog on Huffington Post:
