During the same period, the U.S. overthrew Hawaii's Queen Lilivokalani and transformed these unspoiled Pacific islands into a U.S. Navy base surrounded by Dole and Del Monte plantations. In 1903, after Theodore Roosevelt became president, he sent gunboats to secure Panama's separation from Columbia. The Columbian government had refused Roosevelt's terms for building a canal. [14]
[Uncle Sam:] If they won't sell, I'll just take it!
Then Uncle Sam began sending his Marines everywhere.
The Marines went to China, Russia, North Africa, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. [15]
From the Halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli...
Troops march in Siberia during the U.S. invasion of Russia, 1918.
Between 1898 and 1934, the Marines invaded Cuba 4 times, Nicaragua 5 times, Honduras 7 times, the Dominican Republic 4 times, Haiti twice, Guatemala once, Panama twice, Mexico 3 times, and Columbia 4 times! [16]
In many countries, the Marines stayed on as an occupying army, sometimes for decades. When the Marines finally went home, they typically left the countries they had occupied in the hands of a friendly dictator, armed to the teeth to suppress his own people.