Conquering not in the American playbook

Rick Morain

There are few comparisons — maybe none — in American history to what President Donald Trump proposes for takeover of Greenland by the United States.

Trump refuses to rule out military conquest of the huge Arctic island.

Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, has not attacked us. Denmark has not attacked us. Neither Greenland nor Denmark has threatened to do so. Far from it. Denmark and the United States are both members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and have been partners in that defensive alliance for nearly 80 years.

Maybe the U.S. seizure of Native American lands in the 18th and 19th centuries comes as close as any aspect of our history to Trump’s willingness to use force to acquire Greenland. But even some of those acquisitions took place through treaties with the tribes, often with remuneration, not simply through conquest with brute strength.

Most of them, though, more closely resemble what Trump is threatening for Greenland. American President Andrew Jackson’s treatment of Native Americans provides the closest analogy.

Other American acquisitions took place through purchase, through negotiation, or as spoils of war following our victories after attacks on us.

We bought the Louisiana Purchase from France.

We acquired Florida to end attacks on American citizens and their property from natives, fugitives, and other dangerous inhabitants of the Florida peninsula and panhandle.

We acquired Texas after residents of that entity, which had declared independence from Mexico, asked to become a state of the U.S., and we fought Mexico in order to achieve that. Another result of the Mexican War was acquisition of much of what is now the American Southwest.

We acquired a small border area in extreme southern Arizona and New Mexico — the Gadsden Purchase — by buying it from Mexico several years after the Mexican War to provide a route for the Southern Pacific Railroad.

We bought Alaska from Russia.

We acquired Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam as spoils of our victory in the Spanish-American War. We had declared war on Spain after the explosion of the Maine warship in Havana harbor, which we claimed was instigated by the Spanish Empire.

We acquired the Panama Canal Zone through treaty with representatives of the new nation of Panama, which had recently declared its independence from Colombia.

The key point is that none of those acquisitions took place through aggression against a nation with which we were at peace. Greenland would be the first of those.

Trump claims that American ownership of Greenland is necessary to protect the U.S. against potential threats to our interests in the Arctic from Russia and China. Those nations do indeed seek more dominance in the polar region.

But NATO is pledged to defend Greenland, and its senior partner Denmark, from any military attack by non-member nations, like Russia and China. The United States has military personnel in Greenland now as a NATO nation, and both Denmark and Greenland have publicly offered to discuss significant expansion of American bases, equipment, and military personnel on the island. The 1951 Danish-American defense agreement already allows the U.S. to do just that.

But the governmental and political leadership of both Greenland and Denmark firmly and publicly oppose any American takeover. So do the strong majorities of people in both Greenland and Denmark, despite Trump's statements to the contrary.

There’s no reason to think that American ownership of Greenland would deter Russian or Chinese aggression more than NATO now does.

Another obvious goal for Trump is to gain control of the development of Greenland’s massive mineral deposits, including rare earths vital to modern technology. In addition, the Arctic contains an estimated 25% of all the world’s untapped oil and gas resources.

But there is a way for America to get those resources. It’s called purchase. A nation as wealthy as the United States can certainly afford to negotiate a price for natural resources located outside our borders. It’s strange that Trump, the Great Dealmaker, hasn’t talked about that possibility, rather than threatening to mug Greenland to get them.

Conquering neighboring territory is the Putin plan. It’s never been in the American playbook. And it shouldn’t be.

Rick Morain is a reporter and columnist with the Jefferson Herald.