Although we make and break New Year’s resolutions every year, they seem insignificant when compared to unfulfilled promises in history.
A new year and a new semester at Ohio University. At the start of every January, people around the world decide to commit to making themselves better people by promising to lose weight, be nicer and a whole host of other ideal behaviors. However, as we all know, very few of these New Year’s resolutions actually survive until the next January. In a lot of ways, resolutions are like political agreements and military alliances: They start off looking quite promising, but more often than not, they end up being unfulfilled. In honor of this, here are some famous lies and unfulfilled promises sprinkled throughout history.
During the 1928 presidential election, a chubby, dark-haired man named Herbert Hoover was selected as the candidate for the Republican Party. Determined to create a candidate that would seem like a perfect choice for the average American left wanting more from his or her own life, the Republican Party decided to run under the slogan “a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage.” Such optimism pushed Hoover into the office of the presidency.
Unfortunately, the Great Depression began the following year, causing innumerable economic crises with the wild speculation in the stock market and irresponsible spending. In fact, the Great Depression caused an unemployment rate of nearly 25 percent, one of the highest in American history. With such non-prosperity, Hoover’s campaign promise was seen as a farce of the highest degree, and the failure of its fulfillment catapulted Hoover out of the White House in 1933.
Before the era of Hoover, however, was the era of Manifest Destiny, the time period in which the United States began to make its mark on the entirety of the world by acting as an imperialist power. One of the most prominent imperialist actions undertaken by the United States was the invasion of Cuba in the Spanish-American War. Of course, Americans claimed that they weren’t invading but “defending” the livelihoods of Cubans and protecting American interests.
The era of the Spanish-American War was also the era of yellow journalism, an era in which newspapers printed shocking content in order to stir up publicity and readership. In fact, the Spanish-American War was basically caused by yellow journalism. Essentially, William Randolph Hearst of The New York Journal and Joseph Pulitzer of The New York World were determined to outsell the other and published increasingly lurid and horrific articles detailing Spanish atrocities directed toward Cubans. When both newspapers blamed Spanish torpedoes for causing the explosion of the Maine, an American warship, war was easily accepted, despite the fact that the explosion was caused by a fire in the ammunition stocks. The widespread acceptance of newspapers' accuracy strongly influenced the American perspective.
Strangely enough, not only do people within history books lie to each other, but history books lie to students everywhere. Take the portrayal of Simon Bolivar as an example. A Venezuelan general who is often credited as a hero who ensured the sovereignty of Latin America from Spanish oppression, very few of his misdeeds are ever examined. Most prominently, Bolivar turned over Francisco de Miranda, a fellow Venezuelan who was one of the most patriotic citizens of the country, to the Spanish.
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Miranda spent the rest of his life rotting away in jail while Bolivar continued making a name for himself. Unconfirmed rumors cite Bolivar’s desire to get a Spanish passport as the reason why he would betray one of Venezuela’s most famous patriots.
Lies. Deceit. These are the hallmarks of history, and they bleed over into our history textbooks. Looking at all of these unfulfilled promises and lies definitely lightens the mood when you realize that your New Year’s resolution is insignificant in comparison.
Richard Hwang is a student at Athens High School. What are your New Year's resolutions? Email him at rhwang999@gmail.com.
