William Howard Taft

William Howard Taft

Paola Torres

  William Howard Taft was the 27th president of the United States. He served his 4-year term from 1909 to 1913. He was never much of a politician and he preferred law to politics. Theodore Roosevelt made him the Secretary of War and then after that, in 1907, decided that Taft should be his successor. During his term, Taft worked to increase trade and influence in Latin America. The Latin American Nations weren’t too happy about the American influence entering their countries. Even though Taft was aware of this, he decided to continue his policies and focused on helping industry in Latin America grow; he thought that in doing this, nothing less of beneficial would come for both sides. Taft’s policy to help grow American trade and profits and help Latin America out of poverty became known as the “Dollar Diplomacy”.