American Presidents Are Not Naifs on the Pacific

In his speech to ASEAN leaders, President Obama claimed to be the first 'Pacific President' because he was born in the Pacific and spent time as a child in Indonesia (Politico has a summary of the whole speech). I will leave the domestic political commentary to the able authors at Real Clear Politics, but will note that this is a favorite rhetorical device of this administration to portray itself as pioneers in a given field. It is also popular, both in and out of the United States, to behave as though Americans and American presidents in particular are rubes who want nothing to do with the outside world.

In the case of the Pacific, however, Obama has neither the earliest, nor the best claim to being the "First Pacific President." As far as being born on the Pacific, Richard Nixon was born in California (which is on the Pacific), and actually served in the U.S. Navy entirely in the Pacific, as did John F. Kennedy. Nixon, Kennedy, Johnson, Truman and Eisenhower all spent significant parts of their presidencies concerned with Viet-Nam and Korea (also on the pacific). George Bush was ambassador to China.

An even better claimant to being the first Pacific President is Ronald Reagan, who actually spent eight years as Governor of California, and--while the inflation rates and exchange rates are unclear--it was probably the second largest economy on the pacific rim at that time.

However, all of these claims pale in comparison to the claim of Herbert Hoover. Hoover was not born on the Pacific, but he was a member of the first class from Stanford University, and he lived and worked as an adult in Australia and China. He and his wife both spoke Chinese, which they used as a sort of secret language in the White House. He was even apparently involved in fighting during the Boxer Rebellion. This all happened over one-hundred years before President Obama was elected president!

Needless to say, the Pacific has been of intense personal and professional interest to many if not all presidents, at least since the admission of California to the Union. It may be politically expedient to portray it otherwise, but it simply is not correct.