Epoch Times - Alex Gray broke down the long history of U.S. presidents pursuing Greenland
Aired: 2026-02-16
Duration: 03:22


=== Strategic Importance of Greenland (02:06) ===

[00:00:00]  Why is this such a big issue right now?
[00:00:03]  And well, maybe actually, let me backtrack a little bit.
[00:00:06]  Why is it a big issue at all?
[00:00:07]  Sure.
[00:00:08]  So to start with, why does it matter?
[00:00:10]  Why is it a big issue?
[00:00:12]  I think what people have misunderstood is that this is somehow a President Donald Trump issue, and it's not.
[00:00:18]  President Trump has just been extremely focused on it for reasons we can talk about and that make good sound strategic sense.
[00:00:25]  But presidents from 1867, the Andrew Johnson administration was the first administration to try and acquire Greenland.
[00:00:33]  Woodrow Wilson tried to acquire it in the First World War.
[00:00:37]  Franklin Roosevelt sent troops to occupy it in the Second World War.
[00:00:41]  Harry Truman tried to buy it.
[00:00:43]  Dwight Eisenhower considered buying it.
[00:00:45]  This is a long-standing, important piece of American strategic thought.
[00:00:51]  And what I always tell people is, you start in 1867 and work to today.
[00:00:56]  The strategic logic of why Greenland matters to us has not changed because geography doesn't change.
[00:01:02]  The only thing that's changed is the American president and the adversary that we're trying to counter.
[00:01:08]  So in the beginning of this history, it was Great Britain.
[00:01:11]  We were worried about Britain gaining control of Greenland and then threatening us and post-Civil War.
[00:01:17]  Then in World War I, obviously, we worried about German U-boat bases being built in Greenland.
[00:01:22]  In World War II, Denmark was occupied.
[00:01:24]  The colonial master in Greenland was occupied.
[00:01:27]  We were very concerned, and they actually did land, German raider parties landed in Greenland, set up radar stations, and they were actively planning to build U-boat bases to menace U.S. shipping that was doing Lin-Lease convoys to the Soviet Union.
[00:01:44]  Again, then, of course, the Soviets in the Cold War.
[00:01:47]  This led to the famous 1951 treaty that we signed with Denmark, which was still in effect today, which gives us bases and pretty extensive military access to Greenland.
[00:01:59]  The bottom line, when you think about why have we done this, why does this all matter?
[00:02:03]  Why is this across competitions, across adversaries?

=== Strategic Sea Lanes Threatened (01:15) ===

[00:02:06]  Greenland is a thousand miles or so, as the crow flies, from Maine.
[00:02:12]  If you fly from Greenland to Maine, it's very close.
[00:02:15]  More importantly than that, it's the strategic sea lanes, the Greenland-Iceland-UK gap.
[00:02:22]  This is where the Soviet submarines would come down from northern Russia during the Cold War, stay off the eastern coast of the United States, and threaten us from a nuclear perspective.
[00:02:33]  Now, the Wall Street Journal reported just a couple weeks ago that the Chinese are moving submarines regularly up to the North Pole.
[00:02:42]  And as the Arctic ice melts, that passage between Greenland and the Arctic and northern Canada is going to be an incredibly important strategic location.
[00:02:52]  All this to say, whoever controls Greenland or exerts coercive influence over Greenland is going to have a pivotal role in the security of the Arctic, in the North Atlantic, and in the passage between all of these critical geographies.
[00:03:07]  And that's why it's so important, as it was in 1867.
[00:03:12]  That's why it's so important today to make sure that no outside power has the ability to keep Greenland pointed, a dagger pointed at the United States.