James Gidney reviews the nineteenth and twentieth century history of American response to the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. He argues that not much at all was the response despite efforts of American missionaries and fundraising campaigns. Reviewing why this was the case with the United States and other European nations in the nineteenth century and during the genocide, Gidney points out that Americans did not see it as their problem. And, in the post World War I era this attitude persisted despite the U.S. obligations to a mandate. Looking to the late twentieth and early twenty first centuries he holds the same view but points out that in the present Armenians do not need the help. Gidney raises significant questions about how much the United States should take on responsibility for other nations and, if so, what exactly should these responsibilities be?
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