Unfortunately, US policy makers have often disregarded, set aside, and even disowned the 1776 ideals, primarily because of business interests. It’s worth recalling the American Revolution resulted from British attempts to make Boston pay for anti-corporate vandalism. At the Boston Tea Party, in December 1773, a lawless mob, thinly disguised as Indians, stole and destroyed 342 chests (about 92,000 pounds) of tea from the British East India Company. Britain responded with the Coercive Acts (labeled the Intolerable Acts by colonists) and war followed.

Throughout the 1800s, the US would follow in the footsteps of its mother country, employing its military to serve and protect business interests. From 1900 to 1933, when Franklin Roosevelt (FDR) became president, the US used its military against other nations 60 times, not counting World War I. The US military occupied Haiti for 19 years, brutally crushing dissent, slaughtering thousands and virtually enslaving people to build infrastructure projects beneficial to US businesses. Then, from 1933 to 1953, two Democratic presidents were largely guided by FDR’s Good Neighbor Policy. This policy prioritized American ideals over business interests, eschewed imperialism and showed respect for the sovereignty of other nations.

In 1953, a more pro-business Republican administration took over. Their policies completely ignored the American ideals and were to cause untold suffering and death for millions in following decades. That August, the US CIA staged a bloody coup in Iran, ousting the democratically elected Mohammed Mossadegh and installing a brutal dictator who actively sought to be called the “King of Kings.” This megalomaniac created, with assistance from Israel and the US, an extremely brutal secret police, In 1976, Amnesty International summed up the situation concluding that Iran had: ” the highest rate of death penalties in the world, no valid system of civilian courts, and a history of torture, which is beyond belief. No country in the world has a worse record in human rights than Iran.”

Just as Britain had imposed the Coercive Acts on the colonists to protect the British East India Company, the CIA had toppled Iranian democracy to protect the prerogatives of another British owned corporation-the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. The US had not only shown a complete disregard and contempt for its founding ideals; it had shown a complete indifference to the untold suffering it imposed on millions of Iranians, creating an enmity that exists to this day. Of course, imperialistically motivated nations would be much more interested in Iranian resources than the Iranian people.

As if “one good coup deserves another,” the following June the CIA destroyed the democratically elected government of Guatemala –declaring it was “communist”- to protect the prerogatives of a US corporation, United Fruit, which had employed the US Secretary of State and his brother, the CIA Director. The Guatemalan foreign minister lamented that “every manifestation of nationalism or economic independence or any desire for social progress” is labeled as “communist” by the US.

The following month, in July 1954, a Geneva Treaty called for elections to be held in a unified Vietnam. The US blocked the election, fearing that Ho Chi Minh, who had been profoundly inspired by our 1776 declaration and who selflessly devoted his life to free his country from foreign domination, would possibly win 80% of the vote. To prevent Ho Chi Minh from winning the election and becoming leader of Vietnam, the US essentially created the nation of South Vietnam and then lost over 58,000 troops defending South Vietnam over the next two decades.

The history of Iran, Guatemala, and Vietnam — and perhaps the world — would’ve been entirely different if during that year (August 1953 to July 1954) the US had honored its ideals.

Today, again the US blatantly repudiates its ideals. Trump wants to annex Greenland, although 95% of its residents oppose Trump’s plan. Clearly, Trump cares much more about Greenland’s real estate and resources than its people. Trump has far less support in Greenland today than King George III had in America in 1776. The people of Greenland, Canada, Denmark and Europe support the Declaration’s ideals, such as government by the “consent of the governed”; the Trump administration does not.

No wonder Trump’s commemoration of our 1776 Declaration was much more focused on symbols (cage fights, etc.) than substance.

Rick Jones is a retired adjunct professor of economic history from Weber State University who now lives in West Haven.