Mead again: “Jefferson’s dispatch to Tripoli and Algiers of a punitive mission against the Barbary pirates was the first but by no means the last such expedition sent out by American presidents. The village of Quallah Battooo on the coast of Sumatra was shelled and burned by an American force sent by Jackson,” in retaliation for the massacre of some American sailors. The marines were back later “when the inhabitants continued obdurate in their disrespect for the flag.”

Then: “In 1843 American marines fought with villagers in coastal Liberia after Comm. Matthew Perry was attacked; the marines returned to Liberia in 1860 to protect American lives and property.”

Not to mention:

“In 1843 American marines landed in Guangzhou (Canton) to protect Americans from Chinese mobs. They returned thirteen years later and defeated five thousand Chinese troops in a pitched battle. A permanent marine presence would guard American traders and diplomats in China and participate - under foreign commanders - with European forces in teh suppression of the Boxer Rebellion in 1900.

And: “In 1871 marines retaliated for a Korean attack on an American ship and a diplomat by seizing two forts in a punitive expedition. Commodore Perry’s orders directed him to shell Japan if the mikado refused his request for trade and diplomatic relations. In 1863, at the height of the Civil War, American forces landed in Japan and what is now Panama. By 1900 American forces were established throughout the South Pacific, and the United States had weathered a serious international crisis with German over the control of Samoa.”

Plus: “The permanent Mediterranean squadron was established in 1815 to keep the Barbary pirates in check. In 1822 the United States established its West Indian and Pacific squadrons, the latter charged with protecting American whalers and commercial interests in South America and the South Sea islands. In 1826 this was followed by a Brazil or South Atlantic squadron, with the East India squadron following in 1835 and the African squadron established off the west coast of Africa in 1843.”

To sum: “during the period of American innocence and isolation, the United States had forced stationed on or near every major continent in the world; its navy was active in virtually every ocean; its troops saw combat on virtually every continent, and its foreign relations were in a permanent state of crisis and turmoil.”

Exactly how did the myth of isolationist America gain the slightest plausibility?