What does a City on a Hill have to do with Gitmo? How are American exceptionalism and democracy promotion related to foreign wars? Why does the 19th century rallying cry of "Manifest Destiny" still influence American foreign policy in the 21st century? These and other questions are addressed in the powerful stories featured in MANIFEST DESTINY, a historical series produced by the documentary unit of JAK Films, a division of Lucasfilm. The series is comprised of three 90 minute episodes. Part 1, "To Conquer or Redeem. " With continental expansion as a backdrop, the United States under President William McKinley and Vice President Theodore Roosevelt sets out to free Cuba from the cruelty of imperial Spain. The Spanish American War of 1898 would lead to a brutal guerilla war and the U.S. claiming its own colony: the Philippines. (TRT: 1:29:38) Part 2, "Making the World Safe for Democracy," considers the results of Woodrow Wilson's call for a world shaped by American style democracy. Tracing the Cold War struggle between the US and the USSR, this episode tells the dramatic story of how America moved from inspiring the young Ho Chi Minh at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, to fighting him nearly half a century later. (TRT:1:27:02) Part 3, "Monsters to Destroy," begins with the tearing down of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War. As the sole superpower, the United States under George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush sends troops abroad in a series of small but unpredictable and deadly military actions, from the Gulf War to Somalia, the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq, each with its own compromised objectives and unforeseen consequences. (TRT:1:30:00) Manifest Destiny identifies and critiques key ideological assumptions that have guided U.S. foreign policy throughout its history and continue to influence decision-making today. Commentary by respected historians, journalists and diplomats fill in the dramatic stories that each episode tells.
—Sharon Wood