The Patriot Post® · William Howard Taft and Foreign Policy

While domestic policy proved a difficult sector for President Taft after he surrounded himself with his business and industrial friends and isolated the more progressive voices in the Republican Party, he believed that he could build his legacy in foreign affairs. But, alas, it was not to be.

His “Dollars Diplomacy” increased U.S. investments in Central and South America and across the Far East, while he also used governmental staff to promote the sale of U.S. goods around the world. He believed that heavy industrial and military hardware sales would stimulate the U.S. economy while at the same time increasing U.S. presence and influence as our military trained allies on weaponry and strategies. He encouraged financial institutions to rescue Honduras by funding grants and authorizing loans; U.S. Marines were deployed to Nicaragua when a rebel group threatened the pro-U.S. government.

Few of the programs increased U.S. influence in any region since Central and South America were wary of U.S. assistance following Theodore Roosevelt’s military interference in Panama and Santa Domingo, inflamed by Taft’s use of the Marines in Nicaragua. Taft was encouraged to host a Pan-American Conference to calm agitation by lessening the U.S. presence in those regions, but within days of the conference’s adjournment, Mexican rebel forces threatened to destabilize the government, impacting the safety of U.S. businesses operating in Mexico.

Taft responded immediately by ordering 2,000 American troops to the border, ready to intervene to protect U.S. citizens in Mexico. Congress screamed at the overstep of presidential powers, noting that only Congress could move toward war after a joint declaration. Taft withdrew the troops and was ridiculed in the press as an ineffectual leader. The nickname “Peaceful Bill” was not a welcomed moniker. The Mexican border would continue to be an issue, but Taft left the escalating violence for the next president to address.

The presidential election of 1912 was complicated and exciting. Let’s just say that a three-way race between William Howard Taft, incumbent Republican; Teddy Roosevelt, popular former president and Bull Moose candidate; and Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, did not end with Taft’s reelection. (More next week.)

Taft left the White House and returned to his true love, the law, much to the chagrin of his politically astute wife who felt the fall from power. She did remain supportive while hoping for better days. Taft taught at Yale University Law School from 1913 until Warren G. Harding, a longtime friend, was elected president in 1920 and appointed the former president as chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. (Your trivia win: Who in U.S. history served in the highest office of two of the three branches of government? William Howard Taft.)

Taft thrived in his new position, writing 253 opinions, mostly conservative, but conscious of the limitations the Tenure of Office Act imposed on the president’s appointment and removal of officials within his branch of government. In Myers v. United States, Taft wrote the majority opinion invalidating the legislation that had prompted Andrew Johnson’s impeachment following the Civil War.

How do we remember Taft? It depends on your interpretation of power and lasting accomplishments. Taft was a quiet, kind man with a judicial temperament, but those personality traits were a major factor in his difficulties as president. It certainly did not help that he followed Roosevelt, who was a gale force in the White House.

Taft would serve as chief justice until 1930, when his appetite for good foods and increasing inactivity led to heart disease, high blood pressure, and his retirement. One month and five days later, the former president and chief justice died and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. His funeral was the first to be broadcast live on radio for the American public.