The Monroe Doctrine was presented in President James Monroe's seventh annual message to Congress on December 2, 1823 writen not be James Monroe but by John Quincy Adams who at the time was a cabinet member. The European powers, were to, according to Monroe, respect the Western Hemisphere as the United States' sphere of interest. The United States has always taken a particular interest in its closest neighbors – the nations of the Western Hemisphere. This doctrine dictated American foreign policy even up to the 60s, when the United States stopped the Soviet Union who began to build missile-launching sites in Cuba. The content of the Monroe Doctrine is as follows:The Monroe Doctrine stated that efforts by European nations to colonize land in
