The path from American isolationism to internationalism passed through British Guiana (the boundary dispute of 1895-1899), Havana Harbor (the explosion of the battleship Maine), Manila Bay (Commodore George Dewey’s defeat of the Spanish naval force), Nanking (the negotiations over the Open Door Policy) ... and Plattsburgh, N.Y.
Plattsburgh?
This city of 19,360 planted on the northwestern shore of La…