William McKinley: Message to Congress about Cuban Intervention

Questions for Further Study

• 1. What were the differences over Cuba between Spain and the United States in April 1898 as President McKinley outlined them? Why did the United States have a right and a duty to be concerned about the revolution in Cuba? What traditions in American foreign policy might have shaped the attitudes of the McKinley administration and the people of the United States?
• 2. What are the major criticisms that the president makes of the tactics of the Spanish military in trying to put down the Cuban revolution? What does he mean by “cruel, barbarous, and uncivilized practices of warfare”? What have been the adverse effects of the situation in Cuba on the United States?
• 3. How has the McKinley administration endeavored to obtain a diplomatic solution to the problems of Cuba? What was the nature of the proposal that McKinley made on March 27, 1898, and how did the Spanish respond? How far did Spain go in meeting the demands that Washington had set? Why did the president regard the Spanish answer as “disappointing”?
• 4. What were the options for the United States in light of the Spanish answer to the American initiative? What effect would come if the United States recognized the Cubans as belligerents or endorsed independence for Cuba? What would have been the Spanish reaction to such moves? What are the merits of McKinley's argument against such a course? Why might the American government have doubted the capacity of the rebels to make an independent Cuban nation work? What did Americans think at the end of the nineteenth century about the abilities of the peoples of Latin America to govern themselves? How did racial attitudes influence these judgments?
• 5. What was McKinley asking the Congress to do? In what ways was he seeking to enhance presidential power? Is it surprising that some pro-war members of Congress reacted in a negative way to what McKinley proposed to do about Cuba? How has the process of taking the United States into wars or armed conflicts overseas changed since April 1898?