American statecraft historically treated unity as central, reversing by the 1990s

Evidence

The multicultural trend was also manifested in a variety of legislation that followed the civil rights acts of the 1960s, and in the 1990s the Clinton administration made the encouragement of diversity one of its major goals. The contrast with the past is striking. The Founding Fathers saw diversity as a reality and as a problem: hence the national motto, e pluribus unum, chosen by a committee of the Continental Congress consisting of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams. Later political leaders who also were fearful of the dangers of racial, sectional, ethnic, economic, and cultural diversity (which, indeed, produced the largest war of the century between 1815 and 1914), responded to the call of “bring us together,” and made the promotion of national unity their central responsibility. “The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing as a nation at all,” warned Theodore Roosevelt, “would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities.” In the 1990s, however, the leaders of the United States have not only permitted that but assiduously promoted the diversity rather than the unity of the people they govern. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 847 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The United States reversed its historic promotion of unity toward diversity promotion — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 847; The 1990s unipolar moment revived open imperial language in US policy

Broader Connections

• The United States reversed its historic promotion of unity toward diversity promotion #corroborates (0.96) — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 847