ABSTRACT
The defense and advancement of the cause of democracy throughout the world is synonymous with the defense and advancement of American democracy at home. The point is that the American people are passionately fond of democracy, passionate democrats that they are. They can live with an undemocratic foreign policy so long as the investigative press does not force them to contemplate it: Iran under the shah was an example. But when a populist movement begins to stir in such a country, as it did in Iran, Americans cannot quiet their doubts that the American national interest does not provide a morally valid excuse for siding with undemocratic rulers. There is no point in saying that they should accept it. If the United States is not to surrender the world to the enemies of democracy, it must pursue foreign policies that will expand rather than contract the reach of its power.
