How can we not be somewhat bothered today by Henry Luce's confident assertion on the eve of America's entry into World War II that the expansion of American power and the consolidation of an “American Century” were sure to contribute to the well-being of all humanity? We know the problems the United States faces domestically in race relations, income distribution, and the power of special interests in Washington. In foreign affairs, we are unsure what to do currently in the face of Islamic fundamentalism, Chinese power, or the ongoing crisis in Russia, aware that our efforts to bring peace to places as presumably open to our influence as Haiti and Cambodia have accomplished precious little. Nor should we forget Vietnam, the actions of the Central Intelligence Agency in Central America, the ease with which we abandoned large parts of Africa to their fate after they served our purposes in the Cold War. And how can we be blind to Luce's failure to recognize American self-interest, camouflaging it as a higher purpose, as if America were the servant of the international collective good – surely a disingenuous pose given the wealth, prestige, and power we now enjoy at the pinnacle of world affairs.

In a word, Luce may have had the good taste to avoid the hyperbole Woodrow Wilson demonstrated when he suggested that the United States was an instrument of the Almighty here below, but his appeal sounds very much like Abraham Lincoln's confident assertion that this country is “the last best hope of earth.”