25 times the US has been a force for good in the world

A hopeful take on the last 250 years

A year ago today, a one-year-old child named Nyagoa died in a remote village in South Sudan. She had fallen ill with cholera on July 3rd, 2025. In normal circumstances, the International Rescue Committee would have visited the village that day and provided her with care. But this time, they didn’t. Several months before, they had been forced to suspend those operations after the Trump administration cut their funding as part of a broader evisceration of international aid. Nyagoa’s condition deteriorated quickly, and she died on the Fourth of July.

Nyagoa’s mother and grandmother. Source: Peter DiCampo for ProPublica

There are two layers to this story. The first is that the leadership of the United States callously cut life-saving medical care that amounted to a miniscule fraction of the budget, with no backup plan or warning to allow others to step up, and an innocent child died as a result. But the second is that, for a time, the United States really did make medical care possible in a remote South Sudanese village.

Which, then, is the real US? Is it the one that contributed to Nyagoa’s death, or is it the one that kept children like her alive?

You could ask this question in so many settings. Is the real US the Border Patrol agents who dumped a blind refugee to freeze to death miles from home on a winter night, or is it the Minnesotans who mobilized in the freezing cold with such resolve that the mob of armed agents going after their neighbors had to flee town? 55 years ago, was the US those who decided to drop Agent Orange on Vietnam, or was it the Kent State students who lost their lives protesting it? A century before that, was the US the Dred Scott decision or the abolitionists who decried it?

Maybe the answer is both. The last 250 years have had their horrors and their failures, but they have also held tremendous goodness and promise.

On this 250th anniversary, I thought it would be valuable to feature those parts of the American story—the times the US has been the country we’d like it to be, and the characters who bent this country towards our aspirations. Many of these examples are blemished by hypocrisy and shortcomings. They coexisted with horrors. The right thing did not always happen for the right reasons.

But they are real. They show that the national story does not only belong to those who believe in shutting the rest of the world out except when we want to take something from them. It also belongs to the United States’ foundational ideas of self-determination and democracy. It belongs to the immigration that binds us to the world, to the vision of economic dignity and global cooperation concretized in the mid-20th century, and to the combination of scientific ingenuity and public investment that has placed the United States at the heart of so many of humanity’s greatest innovations. In all these times the US has been a force for good in the world, they provide snapshots of the country we could yet become.

Founding the US on principles of democracy and rights

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Pretty darn good, right? And for the time, radical. Remember, the Declaration of the Independence was written as a counter to a dominant belief of the time that monarchs held a divine right to power, with no accountability to their subjects and free to take over distant lands by brute force—between those poles, I know which one I’m choosing. The fact that the men who wrote these words did not live up to these principles does not make them any less true.

Inspiring movements for independence and self-government

At the time, the American Revolution was clearly understood as weakening the grip of monarchy, colonization, and restrictions of freedoms. Simón Bolívar saw George Washington as an inspiration, and countries like Mexico and Argentina drew significantly from the US Constitution when forming their governments after winning independence from Spain. The French Revolution’s Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was drafted by Marquis de Lafayette with input from Thomas Jefferson. That revolution helped inspire Haitians who wanted those rights for themselves, and figures like Jean-Baptiste Chavannes and likely Henri Christophe had fought in the American Revolution before taking part in the Haitian Revolution.

Providing a home to immigrants

Some other good words: “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” For what it’s worth, the Statue of Liberty is not covered up by a bedsheet, and those words are still on it. From even before independence, the US has provide a haven for people seeking a better life. If the the Quakers and Puritans were the first generation, Jews and Hmong and Cubans succeeded them, and today Afghans and Congolese follow in that proud tradition. For most immigrants to the US—from Italians to Mexicans to Indians—their motivation was less escaping government persecution than them than escaping poverty and stifled potential. Coming to the US allowed them to live the life they wanted to lead, contributing to American progress in the process. Long may it continue.

Showing that nationality means more than ethnicity

This has started to change more recently, but traditionally, nationality went with ethnicity. To be Japanese meant to have Japanese ancestors. To be English meant to have English ancestors. In this context, even if you moved to Japan or England, could you really become Japanese or English? Arguably earlier than any other major country, the US broke that dynamic. Specifically because nearly everyone could trace their roots to faraway lands—a fact that is, of course, linked to the horrific treatment of Native Americans—American nationality emerged as something you could become. There have been those who have sought to circumscribe American identity to people of certain ethnic heritages, but time and time again, they lost—just try selling the idea today that Irish-Americans or Polish-Americans aren’t really American.

Creating music listened to around the world

There is the stopping disease and feeding hungry people kind of being a force for good in the world—don’t worry, we’ll get to those—but there is also the kind that is just about making people’s lives more enjoyable to live. In part because the US brings together so many cultures, it has become arguably the world’s great musical superpower. African-Americans have been particularly central to this, and forms of music that have swept the globe—like jazz, rock and roll, and hip hop—have emerged out of a fusion of African, European, and other immigrant music traditions.

Creating food eaten around the world

Similarly, no matter what food-related metaphor for multiculturalism you prefer—melting pot, salad bowl, etc—there’s no denying that American diversity has made for some great food. The US provided the platform that Hamburg, Germany, could not, and hamburgers proved popular enough that there are now McDonalds in over 100 countries. KFC is in even more countries than McDonalds, thanks to a combination of Scottish and West African cuisine. Maybe hamburgers and fried chicken aren’t your thing (the meat versions aren’t my thing!), but surely you can find something to like in the American creations of Tex-Mex, bagels and cream cheese, and General Tso’s.

Creating the world’s first national park

In 1872, Yellowstone became the world’s first national park. There are now somewhere in the range of 5,000 national parks around the world, including 63 in the US. Yellowstone was clearly an idea ahead of its time.

The Good Neighbor policy

To be sure, you could point out that as the US was founding national parks and creating jazz and taking in immigrants, it was also taking Mexican land and destabilizing Haiti and stripping Latin America of its natural resources. But there have been snippets of another form of relationship, and Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor policy was one of those. In contrast to more paternalistic and belligerent applications of the Monroe Doctrine, Roosevelt opted for a much more cooperative approach with Latin America. His policy swore off military intervention, prioritized economic and cultural exchange, and for a time the US and Latin America enjoyed unusually friendly relations.

The New Deal

Roosevelt entered office amidst the devastation of the Great Depression. In contrast to prevailing views that the market should largely be left to correct itself, Roosevelt’s New Deal promised a massively ambitious and largely unprecedented government-led response. His administration regulated the financial sector, created Social Security, improved labor standards and workers rights, and put millions of Americans to work to improve the country. While primarily focused domestically, the legacy of the New Deal expanded internationally. It helped revitalize the global economy, and it demonstrated that shaping the economy to serve the public interest could stave off the economic hardship that fueled fascism. The prioritization of financial stability, full employment, and public investment that animated the New Deal became central tenets of the post-war international economic system, and the New Deal has become the emblematic case for like-minded programs of ambitious governance—85 years after the New Deal launched, the EU called its flagship climate plan the “European Green Deal.”

World War II

Whatever you think about war generally, and whatever your thoughts on specific American choices in World War II like the use of nuclear weapons, we were definitely on the right side of this one. And it’s a very good thing that side won. Without American involvement, the outcome would have been far less certain.

Spearheading the creation of the post-war international system

There’s something about a great depression and a world war that reminds people of the importance of broad-based economic prosperity and peaceful international cooperation. For all the wrong turns the institutions would take in future decades, and for all that their initial creation excluded much of the world, the international system created in the aftermath of World War II was fundamentally correct in its analysis. And it has been a force for good. The creation of the United Nations strengthened international law and provided a forum for peacefully managing international conflicts. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights—drafted by a committee Eleanor Roosevelt chaired—articulated the modern form of human rights. The IMF and World Bank were created under an internationalist New Deal logic of cooperation to advance monetary stability and public investment. The US didn’t create these institutions on its own, but it was the decisive force.

The Marshall Plan

Several years after World War II ended, Europe was still in a state of devastation. Looking at this, the US very easily could have said “not our problem,” or “what’s in it for us?” Europe was far from the US, and the US had itself been through a depression and a war. As George Marshall acknowledged, “The people of this country are distant from the troubled areas of the earth and it is hard for them to comprehend the plight and consequent reactions of the long-suffering peoples.” The Truman Administration was facing a divided Congress and an upcoming election. But none of that stopped them. From 1948 to 1951, the US spent 13% of the federal budget on the Marshall Plan, dramatically more than it has spent on international aid in recent decades. After extensive campaigning and clear explanations from leaders with the courage of their convictions, a large majority came to support it. European life returned to something like normal, this rebound stimulated demand for the American economy, and the US and Europe forged enduring political and economic bonds.

Taking in over 3 million refugees

In another example of the Great Depression and World War II teaching lessons that people in calmer times can forget, the US helped create the modern system of refugee admissions. World War II had forced millions of people from their homes, and the Holocaust underlined that there will be people unable to live in their home countries. The 1948 Displaced Persons Act provided a first step towards refugee admissions, and the 1951 Refugee Convention created the international legal framework for asylum. The Refugee Act of 1980 scaled up refugee admissions, and the US has become home to over 3 million refugees since. Refugees have gone on to serve in Congress, as the Secretary of State, and to co-found Google.

The Suez Crisis

In 1956, President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, essentially the only way for ships to travel between Europe and Asia except to go all the way around the southern tip of Africa. The canal was previously controlled by a largely British and French-owned company, and control over the canal had motivated the British occupation of Egypt from 1882 to 1922. After Nasser’s nationalization, Israel, Britain, and France invaded Egypt, and this led to the closure of the Suez Canal, creating a shock to the international economy. In this moment of history, the US did not side with European colonial powers. It did not back Israel to the hilt. Instead, it insisted that they stand down. The Eisenhower administration supported a UN resolution calling for a ceasefire, withheld oil shipments that could have eased the energy shock to Britain and France, and even indicated it would use its veto to stop IMF support that would stabilize Britain’s currency crisis. Britain, France, and Israel relented and called off the invasion.

Supporting South Korea’s extraordinary development

South Korea is rightly held up as one of the great development success stories. Poorer than Haiti in 1950, South Korea’s GDP per capita is now 17 times higher. From 1950 to 1975, child mortality fell from one-in-five to one-in thirty. This remarkable surge benefited from significant American aid in the aftermath of the Korean War: over three decades, the US gave almost as much aid to South Korean as all of Africa. South Korea deserves great credit for this success—the government bucked American advice and instituted an extremely effective industrial policy program—but it was able to invest on the scale it did thanks to significant American support. Imagine what other countries could achieve if given the same support.

Peace Corps

As you’re probably noticing, there was a lot of good thinking in the US from the 1930s to 1960s, and the JFK-established Peace Corps forms part of that tradition. When you think about it, it’s a radical idea. Countries and communities around the world can request for Americans to come and offer up their skills. Those Americans will go there—typically without other Americans nearby, in areas far from the places foreigners tend to go—and live there, more or less in the way that local people do. And they’ll do it for two full years. While it faces certain limitations as a development program, Peace Corps has enabled international connection on an enormous scale, binding Americans to people who would never otherwise meet one. More than 240,000 Americans have served in the Peace Corps, myself included.

Connecting the Civil Rights Movement and African decolonization

The creation of the UN and the “liberal international order” is a central geopolitical story of the 1940s-1960s, but it is not the only one. So, too, is a global wave of decolonization, first in South Asia and then in Africa. The greatest American supporters of this shift were not in the US government, but rather those challenging it. The Civil Rights Movement and African independence leaders understood their causes as linked and operated in close conversation. MLK became increasingly internationalist over time, taking inspiration from Gandhi, steadfastly opposing the Vietnam War, and even speaking at Ghana’s independence celebration. Ghana played a particularly important role in this bond—W.E.B. Du Bois and Maya Angelou are among many Black Americans who spent time living there—but leaders like Julius Nyerere, Jomo Kenyatta, and Nasser also met repeatedly with key figures in the Civil Rights Movement.

The Green Revolution

There are nearly three times as many humans alive today as there were in 1950, and yet we eat more and better than that smaller population did. Our ability to produce enough food to feed eight billion humans is thanks in significant part to the huge advances in agriculture of the Green Revolution of the 1950s and 60s. Key innovations included new varieties of cereals, mechanization and irrigation, and improved fertilizers. American scientist Norman Borlaug is often recognized as the father of the Green Revolution and went on to win the Nobel Prize, and organizations like the Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, and USAID helped spread new technological advances to developing countries. The Green Revolution wasn’t perfect—for example, some of its practices have contributed to environmental degradation. But people need to eat, and the US role in the Green Revolution has helped ensure that eight billion people can.

Leading progress in medicine

Just as with agriculture, the US has played a leading role in medical innovation that has dramatically improved human health. The first successful kidney transplant took place in Boston. American researchers made CAR-T cell therapy a reality. The US developed the mRNA technology critical to the COVID-19 vaccine and potentially much more. The US has historically been much better at developing pharmaceutical innovations than ensuring that everyone who needs them can get them, but here, too, you can find pockets of goodness. After Jonas Salk invented the polio vaccine, he declined to patent it, ensuring that anyone could freely use his innovation. When asked about this decision, he replied, “Could you patent the sun?” (Last year a friend held a citizenship party in which attendees dressed up as a “Good American.” I chose Jonas Salk.)

Leading technological innovation

From the Model T and the airplane to the computer and the iPhone, the US has led the world in creating the technology shaping modern life. This technology can come with some downsides, but it’s easy to overlook all its benefits. I, for one, am very glad that I don’t have to print out this Substack and mail it to you! While tech tycoons often prefer to only tell the side of the story focusing on their brilliance, American technological success is a story that is inseparable from government action. Almost every new drug is building off research conducted at the National Institute of Health. Public universities and federal research funding have enabled the academic research that has made subsequent commercial innovation possible. Even the internet was developed thanks to government intervention, through to an institution the US takes so seriously it ensures the public sector is in the drivers’ seat: the military.

Providing the universities of the world

For most of a century, the US has hosted the world’s best universities—and they have been fundamentally global endeavors. Not only have they generated research that benefits Americans and people abroad alike, they have hosted people from around the world. This includes international researchers who enable cutting-edge research at American universities. American universities have also provided an education to over a million international students per year in recent times, although Trump administration policies will likely mean that number declines. This has brought significant revenue to American universities and the (often small-town) communities they are based in, allowed American students to benefit from the knowledge and experience international students bring, and meant that many of the world’s smartest and most influential people—including dozens of foreign leaders—were able to bring American ideas back to their home countries, maintain close ties to Americans, and hold fond memories of the US.

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

More modern American history (well, until 2025) has also brought inspiring international progress. In 1977, the US passed the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The FCPA held a key innovation: it would not only stop bribery of American officials, it would stop Americans from bribing government officials anywhere. Its passage represented a true mark of leadership from the US—it would be decades before other countries instituted similar laws. The FCPA has its flaws, and the Trump administration paused its enforcement, but is a too-rare example of the US legal system refusing to turn a blind eye to legal abuses committed abroad.

Americans With Disabilities Act

Another piece of landmark legislation: The Americans with Disabilities Act. In 1990, the US passed the world’s first law of its kind. Australia, the UK, India, and South Africa quickly passed similar legislation, and the ADA has inspired dozens more countries to pass civil rights legislation for people with disabilities.

The diversity visa lottery

Like many American success stories, the diversity visa lottery’s origin story isn’t entirely pure, and originally it was part of a compromise meant to counteract the shift in the composition of immigrants from primarily European to primarily from the Global South. But nevertheless, out of the Immigration Act of 1990 it came, allowing people from countries that send relatively few immigrants to the US to enter a lottery for a green card, provided they meet certain qualifications. It has become a key source of African immigration to the US, over a million people have immigrated to the US through the visa lottery, and each year until 2025 the opening of the application would provoke mass interest around the world. Because the diversity visa lottery is the immigration category with by far the widest eligibility, it is the closest thing there is to a “line” to immigrate to the US. I wrote about one of the people in that line here, and what it means now that the Trump administration has suspended the program.

PEPFAR

When George W. Bush took office, the medicines that could transform HIV from a quick death sentence to a manageable condition existed, but they had hardly reached the countries hardest hit by HIV. In Botswana, for example, life expectancy had cratered from 67 years to 47 due to AIDS. Coffin makers reported they couldn’t keep up with demand. George W. Bush seemed an unlikely champion of this cause, and a coalition of LGBT Americans and evangelical Christian seemed even more unlikely. But all this came together to lead to the 2003 creation of President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR. Working with host governments, PEPFAR prompted the mass rollout of HIV prevention, testing, and treatment around the world. It has saved an estimated 26 million lives, ten times the population of the US in 1776.

Freddy’s take