History of the United States

The American Pageant is a textbook that “see(s) our policies as part of a morality play in which the United States typically acts on behalf of human rights democracy, and “the American way.” When Americans have done wrong, according to this view, it has been because others misunderstood us, or perhaps because we misunderstood the situation,” (Loewen 221).

When discussing the formation of NATO, for example, The American Pageant writes that, “a willingness to join a peacetime military alliance, despite ancient tradition, revealed a tormenting concern over Soviet aggressions,” (895). Within this logic, the United States was forced to join NATO due to “Soviet aggression” so severe it had warranted a “tormenting concern.” This rhetoric constructs the United States as a victim subject to aggressive political action and ignores any political motives the United States might have for joining NATO. This functions to reinforce the idea that the United States is an innocent nation that just wants to “do good” for its people and for the world.

When discussing the reconstruction of Japan after WW II, the American Pageant describes General MacArthur as “a kind of Yankee mikado...(who) made a tremendous impression on the Japanese with his aloof, Greek-god bearing; and the vanquished people cooperated with their conqueror to an astonishing degree,” (895). General MacArthur, in this rhetoric, is portrayed as a figure that functions to redeem the United States by correcting the damage inflicted upon Japan by the United States during the war. MacArthur is an all-American “Yankee” who is compared to a Greek god, saving the Japanese from death and destruction. The United States is redeemed as a good, well-meaning nation because of MacArthur’s efforts in reconstruction. This rhetoric also reinforces the United States superiority by the way that it constructs the Japanese people as weak and helpless: the Japanese can only recover with the help of the United States, they are “vanquished,” and they are “tremendously impressed” by MacArthur despite that he is their “conqueror.” Not only is the United States a benevolent nation, but its superiority is reinforced through colonialist and imperialist reinforcement of orientalism that render the Japanese weak and incompetent.