OK, the US ran a trade surplus until 1978. Maybe there was a time in the past when we had trade deficits like those of the last 25 years, but I can't seem to find it.
Beginning with the oil crunch, it would seem, we have had nothing but deficits.
Here is the map I promised. Note that trade has been in surplus since the Civil War, or so I hear ( I can't seem to find any older data going back that far). Basically, it's been positive since we discovered "industry",as opposed to "agriculture". And it was how we got rich.
