The United States emerged from the Revolutionary War with its independence, but the young nation remained vulnerable to foreign powers. Both France and Spain claimed territory west of the original thirteen states. Much of the trade of what was then the western United States flowed down the Mississippi River. First Spain and then France controlled the port of New Orleans, posing the threat that either could cripple the U.S. economy by cutting off access to the sea. In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson sent envoys to Paris with instructions to pay up to $10 million to acquire New Orleans and as much of the territory east of the city as possible. However, French leader Napoleon Bonaparte made the Americans a surprise offer: he would sell the entire Louisiana Territory for $15 million. Jefferson worried that nothing in the Constitution authorized such an acquisition. However, he swallowed his objections and jumped at the deal. The purchase more than doubled the size of the United States, secured control of the Mississippi River, and put the country on the path to becoming a continental power. SHAFR historians ranked the Louisiana Purchase as the fourth-best U.S. foreign policy decision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The United States emerged from the Revolutionary War with its independence, but the young nation remained vulnerable to foreign powers. Both France and Spain claimed territory west of the original thirteen states. Much of the trade of what was then the western United States flowed down the Mississippi River. First Spain and then France controlled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2264,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-best-decisions"],"acf":{"add_section":[{"quote_section":"imagecontent","add_section_title":"\u201cEmbryo of a Tornado\u201d","add_section_content":"Americans living west of the Appalachian Mountains at the start of the nineteenth century depended on access to the Mississippi River to send their goods to market. In 1795, President George Washington negotiated a treaty with Spain, which then controlled New Orleans, granting Americans the right to send goods through the port. But in 1801, rumors began to reach Washington that Spain would transfer its claim to Louisiana to France. Jefferson wrote that the move would be \u201cthe embryo of a tornado which will burst on the countries on both sides of the Atlantic.\u201d France was far stronger than Spain and capable of enforcing its claims to New Orleans and beyond. Worse yet, Napoleon Bonaparte, who had seized power in France in 1799, dreamed of establishing a French empire in the region west of the Mississippi. The United States could find itself threatened not just by British Canada to the north but by a France presence to the west.\r\n\r\nIn October 1802, Spain formally ceded its claim to the Louisiana Territory to France. In a parting act, Spain revoked the right of Americans to use warehouses in New Orleans. The exports from more than a third of the United States were suddenly at risk. Some Americans, particularly those living in what were then the western states, urged Jefferson to respond to the closure of New Orleans by seizing the port. Doing so, however, likely meant war.","add_image":2170,"image_position":"bottom","background":false,"quote_content":"","quote_footer":"","video_title":"","video_link":null,"youtube_link":""},{"quote_section":"imagecontent","add_section_title":"Diplomacy Wins Out ","add_section_content":"As the rumors of France\u2019s acquisition of Louisiana swirled, Jefferson sent notes to the French government warning that the United States would \u201cmarry ourselves to the British fleet and nation\" to prevent the move. But these warnings were a bluff. Jefferson had long viewed Britain as the primary threat to the United States and had no interest in an alliance with London. With his hand forced by the closure of New Orleans to U.S. commerce, Jefferson opted to try diplomacy first. In January 1803, he dispatched his close friend and political ally James Monroe to Paris. Monroe\u2019s guidance was simple: try to buy New Orleans and as much of the land east of the city\u2014known as the Floridas\u2014as possible. To that end, Jefferson authorized Monroe to spend up to $10 million. Monroe reached Paris on April 12, 1803. He was greeted by the U.S. minister to France, Robert Livingston. He had surprising news: Napoleon wanted to sell not just New Orleans but the entire Louisiana Territory.","add_image":"","image_position":"null","background":false,"quote_content":"","quote_footer":"","video_title":"","video_link":null,"youtube_link":""},{"quote_section":"imagecontent","add_section_title":"Napoleon\u2019s Reversal","add_section_content":"While Americans were seething over French designs for New Orleans and the Mississippi, Napoleon was souring on his dreams of establishing a French empire in North America. In 1791, enslaved people in the French colony of Saint Domingue, known today as Haiti, began to rebel. In 1801, after years of fighting, Toussaint Louverture, a former enslaved person, took control of the country.\r\n\r\nIn December 1801, Napoleon ordered his brother-in-law to lead a military expedition to retake Saint Domingue. The French force eventually captured Louverture, but his chief lieutenants continued a ferocious resistance. Meanwhile, many French soldiers, including Napoleon\u2019s brother-in-law, died of yellow fever. The effort to retake the colony collapsed.\r\n\r\nThe news of the ill-fated expedition to Saint Domingue came as France faced the growing prospect of renewed war with Great Britain. Napoleon\u2019s advisors counseled him that British naval forces would likely seize both Saint Domingue and New Orleans. Rather than defend the indefensible and hoping to gain U.S. goodwill that might be useful should France go to war with Britain, Napoleon opted to sell the entire Louisiana Territory to the United States. Livingston learned of the decision the day before Monroe arrived in Paris. Rather than wait for new instructions from Washington, Livingston and Monroe began negotiating. On April 30, 1803, they struck the deal to buy Louisiana.","add_image":2175,"image_position":"right","background":true,"quote_content":"","quote_footer":"","video_title":"","video_link":null,"youtube_link":""},{"quote_section":"imagecontent","add_section_title":"Jefferson\u2019s Dilemma","add_section_content":"News of the deal that Livingston and Monroe had struck reached Washington in early summer and was announced on July 4, 1803. Most Americans applauded the achievement. Jefferson, however, doubted that the deal was constitutional. He had long argued that the president, and the federal government more broadly, could only do what the Constitution explicitly authorized. As he wrote in August 1803: \u201cThe general government has no powers but such as the constitution has given it; and it has not given it power of holding foreign territory, and still less of incorporating it into the Union. An amendment of the Constitution seems necessary for this.\u201d\r\n\r\nBut Jefferson wanted the Louisiana Territory. He believed that the health of the American Republic and the virtue of its citizens depended on family farming. He thought agrarian life developed moral character and taught personal responsibility in a way that a commercial or a manufacturing society could not. Doubling the size of the United States would make a nation of family farmers possible. Jefferson\u2019s cabinet shared his hunger for land but not his constitutional qualms. They argued that the deal was too good to pass up and well within the federal government\u2019s power. They noted that the Constitution authorized the president to negotiate treaties, and acquiring territory was a permissible purpose of a treaty.","add_image":2178,"image_position":"right","background":false,"quote_content":"","quote_footer":"","video_title":"","video_link":null,"youtube_link":""},{"quote_section":"imagecontent","add_section_title":"Congress Debates","add_section_content":"The agreement that Monroe and Livingston struck gave the United States until October 1803 to ratify the treaty. Faced with a rapidly approaching deadline to act, Jefferson dropped his insistence that the Louisiana Purchase could only be concluded by amending the Constitution. He now had to persuade the Senate to consent to the treaty and Congress to appropriate the funds needed to conclude the purchase.\r\n\r\nMembers of the Federalist Party, Jefferson\u2019s opposition, sought to block Senate approval. They offered an array of objections. The young country could not afford the purchase. The price tag would double once the federal government paid off the loan needed to finance the deal. The United States would become too big and diverse to govern. Disputed boundaries with British and Spanish claims in North America constituted a possible source of future conflict. Slavery would expand into the new territory. The Federalists also bristled at what they saw as Jefferson\u2019s hypocrisy: The strict constitutional constructionist was abandoning his principles now that they conflicted with his interests.\r\n\r\nThe Federalists\u2019 objections to acquiring the Louisiana Territory reflected self-interest as much as principle. The party drew its political strength from the northeastern states. Westward expansion threatened that region\u2019s well-being. Ports that had long been the United States\u2019 gateway to the world might suffer as commercial opportunities shifted to New Orleans, and businesses might collapse as workers headed west for new opportunities.","add_image":"","image_position":"null","background":false,"quote_content":"","quote_footer":"","video_title":"","video_link":null,"youtube_link":""},{"quote_section":"imagecontent","add_section_title":"Congress Decides","add_section_content":"The Federalists were badly outnumbered in the Senate, and their effort to block the treaty came to naught. Jefferson\u2019s fellow Democratic-Republicans rallied behind him. On October 20, 1803, after two days of debate, the Senate voted 24 to 7 to consent to the treaty with France.\r\n\r\nWith the treaty approved, the debate turned to the question of paying for the purchase. Here the vote was far closer. Although the United States was acquiring 828,000 square miles of land for less than a nickel per acre, the $15 million price tag was steep for the young country. Completing the purchase would require it to borrow money from European banks, an unpopular proposition in a country proud of its independence. As a result, the bill to authorize completing the purchase passed the House by only two votes, 59 to 57. The Senate was less troubled by the financial commitment and moved quickly to add its approval. The United States had completed the Louisiana Purchase.","add_image":2185,"image_position":"bottom","background":false,"quote_content":"","quote_footer":"","video_title":"","video_link":null,"youtube_link":""},{"quote_section":"imagecontent","add_section_title":"The Legacy of the Louisiana Purchase","add_section_content":"The consequences of the Louisiana Purchase were sweeping. The sale secured the western frontier of the United States from a potential French threat. New possibilities for expansion exploded, laying the groundwork for what would come to be called Manifest Destiny, or the belief that the United States was destined to reach from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and making possible the emergence of the United States as a continental country and ultimately a world power. The\u00a0Louisiana Purchase also expanded the power of the national government by affirming that the Constitution granted implied as well as explicit powers. Yet the Louisiana Purchase also had a dark side. It made possible the expansion of the plantation economy, enabling the growth and brutality of the American slave system. The deal also ignored the fact that dozens of Indigenous tribes already lived in the Louisiana Territory. As the nineteenth century progressed, American settlers, aided by an increasingly powerful federal government, forcibly moved tribal nations off their native lands.","add_image":"","image_position":"null","background":false,"quote_content":"The accession of [the Louisiana] territory affirms forever the power of the United States, and I have just given England a maritime rival that sooner or later will lay low her pride. ","quote_footer":"Napoleon Bonaparte, 1803","video_title":"","video_link":null,"youtube_link":""},{"quote_section":"quote","add_section_title":"","add_section_content":"","add_image":null,"image_position":false,"background":false,"quote_content":"The accession of [the Louisiana] territory affirms forever the power of the United States, and I have just given England a maritime rival that sooner or later will lay low her pride. ","quote_footer":"Napoleon Bonaparte, 1803","video_title":"","video_link":null,"youtube_link":""}],"add_testimonials":[{"author_name":"Joseph Parrott","add_testimonial_content":"The Louisiana Purchase was among the most impactful negotiations in US history, more than doubling the size of the United States, removing key competitors on the continent, helping to assure greater long-term security as a result, and ultimately creating an economic boom for the country that laid the groundwork for future growth\u2014all through diplomacy with minimal conflict (at least between the negotiating powers).","add_university_department":"Assistant Professor of History, Ohio State University","add_image":1374},{"author_name":"Michael Hopkins","add_testimonial_content":"The Louisiana Purchase brought three huge benefits to the new republic. First, a vast increase in territory. Second, it largely eliminated the danger of French action in North America. Third, it tapped into a sense of expanding U.S. power that united many otherwise contending individuals and groups. And it was achieved by negotiating and not by force of arms.","add_university_department":"Reader in American Foreign Policy, University of Liverpool","add_image":1377},{"author_name":"Michael J. Devine","add_testimonial_content":"The Louisiana Purchase established the young republic as a viable entity and provided security and stability in North America. As a diplomatic event, it is unsurpassed as a singular historic milestone in its national importance.","add_university_department":"Adjunct Professor of History, University of Wyoming","add_image":1388},{"author_name":"Phyllis Soybel","add_testimonial_content":"The U.S. was on an expansionist course and with the [Louisiana] Purchase would avoid a war with France over American settlement west of the Mississippi....It also helped the United States reduce tensions among citizens by creating a safety valve of movement west.","add_university_department":"Associate Professor of History, Lake Country College","add_image":2203}],"learn_more_title":"Learn More","add_learn_more_content":"Primary documents, books, articles, and more on the Louisiana Purchase.","add_sources":[{"add_sources_title":"Primary Documents","single_source":[{"source_link_title":{"title":"Thomas Jefferson, \u201cLetter to Robert R. Livingston,\u201d April 18, 1802","url":"https:\/\/founders.archives.gov\/documents\/Jefferson\/01-37-02-0220","target":""},"source_content":"A letter Jefferson wrote warning that France\u2019s acquisition of Louisiana would force the United States to \u201cmarry\u201d itself to the \u201cBritish nation and fleet.\u201d","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Thomas Jefferson, \u201cLetter to Pierre Samuel Du Pont de Nemours,\u201d April 25, 1802","url":"https:\/\/founders.archives.gov\/documents\/Jefferson\/01-37-02-0263","target":""},"source_content":"A letter Jefferson wrote to a friend arguing that France\u2019s acquisition of the Louisiana Territory would unleash the \u201cembryo of a tornado.\u201d","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Thomas Jefferson, \u201cMessage to the Senate Regarding Louisiana,\u201d January 11, 1803","url":"https:\/\/avalon.law.yale.edu\/19th_century\/tj003.asp","target":""},"source_content":"Jefferson addresses the issues surrounding the cession of Louisiana from Spain to France and the suspension of the right of deposit at New Orleans\u2014both critical concerns for the United States.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Louisiana Purchase Treaty, April 30, 1803","url":"https:\/\/avalon.law.yale.edu\/19th_century\/louis1.asp","target":""},"source_content":"The text of the treaty transferring sovereignty over the Louisiana Territory to the United States.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Alexander Hamilton, \u201cPurchase of Louisiana,\u201d July 5, 1803","url":"https:\/\/founders.archives.gov\/documents\/Hamilton\/01-26-02-0001-0101#:~:text=by%20adding%20to%20the%20great%20weight%20of%20the%20western%20part%20of%20our%20territory%2C%20must%20hasten%20the%20dismemberment%20of%20a%20large%20portion%20of%20our%20country%2C%20or%20a%20dissolution%20of%20the%20Government.","target":""},"source_content":"Hamilton argues that the Louisiana Purchase would make the country ungovernable and lead to the \u201cdissolution of the Government.\u201d","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Thomas Jefferson, \u201cLetter to John Dickinson,\u201d August 9, 1803","url":"https:\/\/founders.archives.gov\/documents\/Jefferson\/01-41-02-0127#:~:text=our%20confederation%20is%20certainly%20confined,incorporating%20it%20into%20the%20Union.","target":""},"source_content":"Jefferson expresses his doubts about the constitutionality of acquiring the Louisiana Territory.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"President Thomas Jefferson, \u201cMessage to the Senate and House,\u201d January 16, 1804","url":"https:\/\/avalon.law.yale.edu\/19th_century\/tj006.asp","target":""},"source_content":"Jefferson informs Congress that control over the Louisiana Territory passed peacefully to the United States.","source_image":""}]},{"add_sources_title":"Books","single_source":[{"source_link_title":{"title":"Charles A. Cerami, Jefferson\u2019s Great Gamble: The Remarkable Story of Jefferson, Napoleon, and the Men Behind the Louisiana Purchase","url":"https:\/\/sourcebooks.com\/non-fiction\/9781402202407-jeffersons-great-gamble-tp.html","target":""},"source_content":"In a New York Times bestseller, Cerami explores the political maneuverings that led to the Louisiana Purchase.","source_image":1403},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Julie M. Fenster, Jefferson\u2019s America: The President, the Purchase, and the Explorers Who Transformed a Nation","url":"https:\/\/www.labyrinthbooks.com\/jeffersons-america\/","target":""},"source_content":"Fenster describes how Jefferson's vision and strategic decisions led to the Louisiana Purchase and the subsequent expeditions that mapped and secured the new western frontier.","source_image":1407},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Jon Kukla, A Wilderness So Immense: The Louisiana Purchase and the Destiny of America","url":"https:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/96103\/a-wilderness-so-immense-by-jon-kukla\/","target":""},"source_content":"Kukla uses letters, memoirs, and contemporary documents to tell the story of the greatest land deal in history.","source_image":1410},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Junius P. Rodriguez, The Louisiana Purchase: A Historical and Geographical Encyclopedia","url":"https:\/\/www.bloomsbury.com\/uk\/louisiana-purchase-9781576077382\/","target":""},"source_content":"Rodriguez assembles the work of more than one hundred experts to provide a comprehensive reference work on the Louisiana Purchase.","source_image":1413}]},{"add_sources_title":"Articles","single_source":[{"source_link_title":{"title":"Erin Blakemore, \u201cThe Louisiana Purchase Was Driven by a Slave Rebellion\u201d","url":"https:\/\/www.history.com\/articles\/louisiana-purchase-price-french-colonial-slave-rebellion","target":""},"source_content":"A slave revolt in Haiti ended Napoleon\u2019s dream of establishing a French empire in the Americas and made Jefferson\u2019s offer to purchase Louisiana appealing.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Wayne T. De Cesar and Susan Page, \u201cJefferson Buys Louisiana Territory, and the Nation Moves Westward\u201d","url":"https:\/\/www.archives.gov\/publications\/prologue\/2003\/spring\/louisiana-purchase.html","target":""},"source_content":"De Cesar and Page discuss the importance of the Louisiana Purchase in doubling the size of the United States.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Joseph A. Harriss, \u201cHow the Louisiana Purchase Changed the World\u201d","url":"https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/history\/how-the-louisiana-purchase-changed-the-world-79715124\/","target":""},"source_content":"Jefferson and many other Americans viewed French control of New Orleans as a threat to their fledgling nation.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Christopher Klein, \u201cWhy Thomas Jefferson Faced Opposition to the Louisiana Purchase\u201d","url":"https:\/\/www.history.com\/articles\/louisiana-purchase-opposition-thomas-jefferson","target":""},"source_content":"Some members of Congress objected that Jefferson\u2019s bold land deal was too costly and saddled the young United States with a vast, ungovernable territory.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Monticello, \u201cThe Louisiana Purchase: A World Changing Deal\u201d","url":"https:\/\/www.monticello.org\/thomas-jefferson\/louisiana-lewis-clark\/the-louisiana-purchase\/","target":""},"source_content":"The organization that maintains Jefferson\u2019s cherished home at Monticello, Virginia, tells the story of the consequential land deal that he feared was not constitutional.","source_image":""}]},{"add_sources_title":"Documentaries and Short Videos","single_source":[{"source_link_title":{"title":"Captivating History, \u201cThe Amazing Louisiana Purchase\u201d","url":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=hn6dTQ6-4_k","target":""},"source_content":"A twelve-minute look at one of the largest land deals in world history.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"History, \u201cJefferson's Revolutionary Louisiana Purchase\u201d","url":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=a_985omoO3o&t=2s","target":""},"source_content":"A seven-minute recap of how fears of about the security of the United States drives Jefferson to negotiate the Louisiana Purchase.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"HistoryChannel.com, \u201cThe Louisiana Purchase\u201d","url":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=9gC5-8qGC5I","target":""},"source_content":"A forty-five-minute examination of the origins and consequences of the Louisiana Purchase.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Louisiana Public Broadcasting, \u201cAmerica's Louisiana Purchase: Noble Bargain, Difficult Journey\u201d","url":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=MNxmboWs0H8","target":""},"source_content":"A half-hour look at the events that led the United States to acquire the Louisiana Territory and the impact the acquisition had on the country.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Voice of America, \u201cThe Making of a Nation: Louisiana Purchase\u201d","url":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=L7PpqvuUSoA&t=2s","target":""},"source_content":"A fifteen-minute review of Jefferson\u2019s decision to pursue a land purchase that violated his constitutional principles and his political promises.","source_image":""}]},{"add_sources_title":"Lectures and Podcasts","single_source":[{"source_link_title":{"title":"History Analyzed, \u201cThe Louisiana Purchase\u201d","url":"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/the-louisiana-purchase\/id1632161929?i=1000697032871","target":""},"source_content":"Host Mark Palmer discusses why Jefferson pursued a land deal that doubled the size of the United States.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Listening to America With Clay Jenkinson, \u201cTen Things About the Louisiana Purchase\u201d","url":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=W_UOr59ueeU","target":""},"source_content":"Jenkinson talks with presidential scholar Lindsay Chervinsky about the Louisiana Purchase.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Midlo Center for New Orleans Studies, \u201c1803: Midpoint of American History?\u201d","url":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Eu7f7XprjrM","target":""},"source_content":"Historian Jon Kukla tells the story of the racial controversies that came with the U.S. acquisition of Louisiana.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Stuff You Should Know, \u201cThe Louisiana Purchase: Not a Purchase\u201d","url":"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/in\/podcast\/the-louisiana-purchase-not-a-purchase\/id278981407?i=1000594900671","target":""},"source_content":"Hosts Josh Clark and Charles Bryant discuss the lesser-known aspects of the Louisiana Purchase.","source_image":""}]},{"add_sources_title":"Timeline","single_source":[{"source_link_title":{"title":"Lewis-Clark.org, \u201cLouisiana Purchase Timeline\u201d","url":"https:\/\/lewis-clark.org\/louisianas-purchase\/louisiana-purchase-timeline\/","target":""},"source_content":"","source_image":""}]}],"add_bottom_title":"","add_bottom_image":"","add_background_image":"","add_bottom_button":"","add_year":"1803"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/build.mini.cfr.org\/ten-best-ten-worst-us-foreign-policy-decisions\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/Screenshot-2025-07-16-153607.png.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/ten-best-ten-worst-us-foreign-policy-decisions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/ten-best-ten-worst-us-foreign-policy-decisions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/ten-best-ten-worst-us-foreign-policy-decisions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/ten-best-ten-worst-us-foreign-policy-decisions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/ten-best-ten-worst-us-foreign-policy-decisions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44"}],"version-history":[{"count":38,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/ten-best-ten-worst-us-foreign-policy-decisions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3977,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/ten-best-ten-worst-us-foreign-policy-decisions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions\/3977"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/ten-best-ten-worst-us-foreign-policy-decisions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/ten-best-ten-worst-us-foreign-policy-decisions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/ten-best-ten-worst-us-foreign-policy-decisions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/ten-best-ten-worst-us-foreign-policy-decisions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}