Join the Marines and See the World (Cont.)
Screen 2 of 2Our debate strategy included several substantive arguments for or against the protection of investments in foreign countries, but occasionally we would also use some irrelevant and grandiloquent rhetoric for audience appeal--a tactic which we later learned was not viewed favorably by the judges.
One such example in support of the negative side of the argument was related to some fatalities which had been suffered recently by the Marines in Nicaragua. Our use of this fact went something like this.
"We are all familiar with the recruiting slogan, 'Join the Marines and see the world.' Well, judging by what happened to the Marines who were killed last month in Nicaragua while protecting U.S. business interests in that country, perhaps the slogan should be changed to say, 'Join the Marines and see the other world!"'
This point usually brought laughter from the audience but rarely ever gained for our negative team any points from the judges.
On other occasions, however, when we were supporting the affirmative side of the question and arguing that U.S. business investments abroad should be protected, we used a different tactic. We would attempt to offset the point we expected the opponents to make about the Marines "seeing the otherworld" by saying in advance of their initial presentation something to the effect that, "Our opponents may very well try to impress the audience and judges by repeating that old chestnut about 'joining the Marines and seeing the other world.' In a way, we hope they will use that cheap and less-than-funny joke because if they do it will just show the judges how weak their case really is--and how little substantive argument there is to support the negative side of this question."
So went our logic and teenage rhetoric in the debating competition. All our debating efforts that year resulted in some wins and some losses. The fact that I have forgotten how many of each there were probably indicates we lost more than we won. But I won't admit that.
In any case, substantially the same U.S. foreign policy issues related to Central and South America are still being debated. El Salvador is no exception. The heated arguments for and against our involvement there seem to echo once again the contention of the Monroe Doctrine that "the Western Hemisphere is ours--prospective intruders beware."
********** Chester C. Travelstead
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