Article snippet: Am I describing the 45th President’s effort to buy Greenland from Denmark? Nope, I’m describing the 17th President’s successful effort to buy Alaska from Russia in 1867. It was one of the best bargains America ever struck. If President Trump can pull off another deal like that, I say God bless him! Greenland’s vast arctic expanse—which, at over 800,000 square miles, is more than a quarter the size of the U.S. Lower 48—is surely another Alaska in terms of untapped wealth. The media would do well to chill with mocking President Trump and instead learn some U.S. history. Our country’s desire to purchase Greenland predates the purchase of Alaska. Back in 1867, the effort to buy Alaska was the brainchild of then-Secretary of State William Seward, who had originally been appointed to the post by Abraham Lincoln. Under President Lincoln, Seward steered America’s diplomacy during the Civil War, and that experience gave him a deep appreciation of the importance of territory as a source of both wealth and security. He understood that the possession of a given piece of land can be used as a forward military base for the United States, and therefore not as launching pad for a potential foe. Those were the days, after all, when the great powers of the era—Britain, France, Russia, and soon Germany and Japan—were sending their gunboats around the world looking to snap up colonies. So as a simple matter of self-defense, the United States had little choice but to muscle up geog... Link to the full article to read more