The United States seems to uphold an appealing ideology when it comes to foreign policy; the need to intervene. In this paper, I will prove my belief that US foreign policy has relied on the same idea of intervention since World War II.
The aftermath of World War II left the world in a muddled mess. Germany was divided. Japan was left in ruins The Soviet Union left the war frustrated. Needless to say, it was apparent that another war would arise quickly after. The United States government was feeling threatened by Stalin, and could not sit in the shadows of Stalin’s power It seemed as though America solidified an ideological commitment to intervene in nations fighting forces of communism, but in reality, an ideological desire for general intervention was born.
When North Korean troops trespassed the 38th parallel in June of 1950, the U.S., now opportunistic and vigilant, declared it a threat to not only the United States and its allies, but to the idea of liberty itself. The Korean War is seldom remembered – the looming shadow of World War II and the impending war in Vietnam often serve to minimize the importance of the Korean War. The war was significant, however, in the sense that it marked the first time the United States intervened on behalf of a foreign countries interests absent any real imminent domestic danger. Harry S. Truman believed that free people everywhere could maintain free institutions, which makes sense in that the United States would intervene in a failing nation that posed no real significant threat to the safety and freedom of the U.S.A. Our new ideological penchant toward intervention flared up at the opportunity to help an ailing Korea.
In Vietnam, a struggling, U.S. backed South Vietnam and its incompetent emperor Bảo Đại was failing to give the Vietnamese people any reason to defend democracy. With communist forces mounting, it seemed increasingly clear that war was brewing in Vietnam. On June 1, 1956, the then Senator John F. Kennedy delivered a speech America’s Stake in Vietnam. He argued for intervention and called attention to the tensions developing abroad. He recognized Vietnam as the “cornerstone of the Free World in Southeast Asia” and claimed intervention would secure United States interest in a myriad of countries, As the list of rationales fueling our ideological drive to intervene mounted, the scene in Vietnam worsened. The chaos gave way to full on American intervention in Vietnam.
Early one September morning, around 9 AM EST, two commercial jetliners would fly into the Twin Towers in downtown Manhattan, and the world would forever change. This was the first major terrorist attack on U.S. soil, and the scale of destruction and loss of life was on scale with Pearl Harbor. Chaos ensued as some rushed out of the burning buildings, while others rushed in. After the buildings had fallen, after all the dust settled and the fires subsided, we were left absent a clear enemy. No single nation perpetrated these acts and absented a clear enemy, President George W. Bush and the United States government stood before the American public and declared war on an unusual but deserving target: terror in general. More than 50 years later, we see the initial ideological commitment to the intervention made in the aftermath of World War II shine through once again. We were concerned that the situation in the Middle East would prove hazardous to the United States if we did not act.
When comparing the two waves of American intervention abroad – the Cold War era and the terrorist era – it becomes increasingly clear that the two share the same unique underpinning. Backtracking through history, we see intervention in the Middle East in the form of efforts to eradicate terrorism and install democratic institutions. Decades earlier, we see intervention in the form of eliminating communism and ensuring the survival of democracy abroad. After seeing the atrocious ramifications of U.S. noninvolvement in Germany, we made an ideological pledge never to allow the events to repeat themselves. Here is where the idea of intervention was born and implanted into our ideological agenda. We developed the ideology that the most stable way to ensure America’s safety and interests are always protected abroad was to intervene and have a presence in foreign countries.
All in all, I do believe that it’s the United States Government’s place to run the country based on democracy and freedom. With that being said, I don’t believe that has always been the case, but for the most part, it has. Many will say that the US involvement in Vietnam was uncalled for. However, when it came to the war on Communism as well as terrorist attacks, the US felt they were doing what was/is best for American Citizen to protect their freedom of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.