A President's Duty

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If you lived in the era of the 1940s you would have lived to see World War II end in 1945 when the German army surrendered and America won the war. You would see the wrinkles of smiles on the faces of people young and old; fireworks to celebrate the success. Segregation was fading because of the war, and women were receiving the chance to show what they were truly capable of the rights they had gained. You would see the economy soaring thanks to the mass production of war materials. The pride of millions of Americans escalating. The United States was looked at in a completely different way because of our atom bomb. You would have lived to see some of the greatest things that ever happened to America and it was all because of a war. Where would our country be without war? Would we have stood strong as a nation without fighting for our right to be free and not strangled in national powers from around the world that would want to overtake America? Would America have aided the countries that have helped us when they needed help? In World War 2 “Hitler continued to expand taking Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, and Belgium. In June, 1940, France fell to Germany.” (American History from About) People were dying. Intervention was necessary to save lives. If the United States hadn’t paired up with the UK, then who knows where the population of Jews would stand. When Washington’s neutrality instructions were followed, “Denmark lost 100 Jews. France lost 83,000 Jews. Netherlands lost 104,000. Norway lost 700 Jews. Belgium lost 24,400 Jews” (World War 2 Casualties). What were we thinking while we stood there and heard the terrible news of the deaths of Jews reaching us? The people in power simply weren’t sure whether or not there was enough... ... middle of paper ... ...g his presidency. And the safety of the nation came before directions left for him by Washington Madison faced many different issues than Washington did when he created his policy. President Madison had the most problems out of all the presidents, and when he switched to intervention he was more than justified. Without presidents choosing intervention over isolationism, there is no way to even tell where our country would stand today. American views on intervention and isolationism are always going to be mixed, there is never going to be complete unification. Madison was brave to choose intervention. Madison is a metaphor for difficult decisions because of the hard decisions he had to make, because his was one of the hardest in US history. In the end the right decision was to go to war to protect America, after all that is a president’s duty: to protect his country.

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