World War 2 was a boon for the United States economy, the linchpin in FDR’s economic reform, a windfall for The American worker, and with its resolution followed fears of recession, and from those fears arose The Truman Doctrine, the consecration of United States’ modern foreign policy, which began with America’s transformation from an agrarian society to an industrial economy, a transformation that began with The Gilded Age and ended with The New Deal. If FDR’s domestic policy sustained America and World War 2 guaranteed her maximum employment, then The Truman Doctrine laid the foundation for the preservation of that model, a model predicated upon war - covert war, total war, The Cold War - a complete reversal of traditional American isolationist foreign policy, which was established with George Washington’s farewell address.
“The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have none, or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves, by artificial ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities.”
Truman was not the first to undermine the precedent set by America’s patriarch. James Monroe expanded upon American foreign policy in his seventh State of The Union Address, in which he outlined a policy of limited interventionism that would later be dubbed “The Monroe Doctrine.” In his address, Monroe vested The United States with a duty to defend sovereign nations in The Western Hemisphere from colonial power and declared America’s neutrality in all matters affecting those who reside opposite The Atlantic and Pacific. The Monroe Doctrine would later be leveraged by Theodore Roosevelt to legitimate imperialistic interdiction in the Western Hemisphere.
“Chronic wrongdoing, or an impotence which results in a general loosening of the ties of civilized society, may in America, as elsewhere, ultimately require intervention by some civilized nation, and in the Western Hemisphere the adherence of the United States to the Monroe Doctrine may force the United States, however reluctantly, in flagrant cases of such wrongdoing or impotence, to the exercise of an international police power.”
Ten short years after Roosevelt delivered his 1904 State of The Union address, Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, and American business interests, smelling blood, lead by J.P. Morgan Jr. And Bethlehem Steel, propelled The United States to war with Woodrow Wilson’s blessings. In 1915, Wilson lifted a ban on loans made to warring nations in Europe despite objections from his Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan, who had written a letter to Wilson on August 10th, 1914, in which he noted that The United States’ “refusal to loan to any belligerent [warring nation] would naturally tend to hasten a conclusion of the war.” The House of Morgan issued well over 500 million dollars - or approximately 2.5 trillion dollars after adjusted for inflation - in loans to The French Government to assist Europe in her self-immolation. Bethlehem Steel contributed 65,000 pounds of forged military products, 70 million pounds of armor plate, 1.1 billion pounds of steel for shells and 20.1 million rounds of ammunition to the meat grinder in the trenches. Tensions between Wilson and Bryan escalated, then climaxed over a disagreement on how to respond to the sinking of The Lusitania. Germany claimed that the ship was carrying arms and ammunition and was a de facto target of war since it was included on Britain’s list of AMCs (armed merchant cruisers) and Bryan capitulated. Wilson disagreed, however, and kindly requested that his Secretary tender his resignation. The sinking of The Lusitania was a violation of international Cruiser Rules and grounds for war according to Wilson, although archaeologists have since confirmed that the merchant ship was smuggling arms to Britain while being used as a passenger vessel.
The New Deal shepherded America’s farmers into the nation’s cities and factories, which were being purchased by the beneficiaries of President Roosevelt’s largesse, monopolists who had expanded operations using funds from The United States Treasury. The advent of war brought full employment to American soil. Industrialists who had consolidated power using Treasury funds would be rewarded with an endless stream of revenue in the form of government contracts. All was leveraged to advance the war effort. Automobile manufacturers were retrofitted for the fabrication of B-52 bombers, M4 Shermans and artillery shells. With over 12 million men enlisted for military service, the government was begging for more employees to man the assembly lines at arms manufacturers across the country. Wages and salaries doubled, consumer spending increased, nest eggs were fat and hearty. This is the military-industrial-complex that Eisenhower referenced in his farewell speech.
“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together. Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.”
Factories, cities and wage labor fueled the war machine that allowed The United States to prosper during The Second World War. Industry paved the road for Eisenhower’s “technological revolution.” The United States had evolved into the biggest arms dealer in the world and she needed clients, which required war, and Truman gave it to her. He gave her The Cold War and The Korean War, the latter of which was ordered by fiat. Although Eisenhower established law, order and peace, although he brought The Korean War and Suez crises to an end with iron-fisted diplomacy, he instructed the CIA to assassinate El Jefe, The Dominican Republic’s fascist dictator, and engaged in “joint action of the President and the Congress . . . to undertake . . . programs of military assistance and cooperation” in The Middle East. JFK would later authorize the assassination of El Jefe, equip Israel’s military and provide covert resistance to violent revolution in South Vietnam while assisting the Ba’athist coup in Iraq. Although Kennedy expressed a desire to withdraw U.S. support for American involvement in The Vietnam War prior to his assassination, Lyndon B. Johnson intervened on behalf of The South Vietnamese with the full extent of American military force after Congress abdicated with its war powers in Southeast Asia for an indefinite period of time.
The Gulf of Tonkin incident, a sea skirmish initiated by The USS Maddox on August 2nd, 1964 with a three-round burst of 127mm guns on two North Vietnamese torpedo boats, which resulted in neither American casualties nor material damage, would be the catalyst for a war that would allow Congress to shirk their constitutional duty to “declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water.” The Vietnam War would claim 3.1 million civilian lives, 300,000 Cambodian soldiers, 200,000 Laotian soldiers and the lives of 58,220 Americans. Alternatively, an attack on The USS Liberty by Israeli nationals that resulted in 34 dead and 171 wounded crew members in June 8th, 1967 would end with a cover up.
If LBJ’s rationale for committing American military personnel to Vietnam was untenable, then Nixon’s sabotage of the 1968 Paris Peace Accords for political gain is unthinkable. In order to secure his election, Nixon actively undermined U.S. peace talks between The North and South Vietnamese, which extended the war for a period of four years. Ronald Reagan would also intervene in international politics for political gain when he arranged for the sale of arms to Iran via a third party (Israel) to prolong The Iran Hostage Crises, fund rebels in Nicaragua and secure his victory in the 1980 U.S. presidential election. From 1982 until the present, The United States has interceded in bilateral disputes to advance her own interests, intervened by land, sea and air in coordination with NATO, participated in large-scale bombing campaigns, intimidated sovereign nations, supported and established dictatorships throughout Central America, South America, The Middle East and Africa, propagated fear and hatred, destabilized populist and democratic governments under the auspices of The War on Drugs, acted militarily in contravention of United Nations decree and declared war upon a vague enemy on a battlefield that spans the globe. Her targets have included Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Pakistan, Somalia, Nicaragua, El Savador, Honduras, Venezuela, Bolivia and Grenada (to name a few). United States military actions since 1963 have killed, maimed and displaced well over twenty million people and today The United States is on the verge of monopolizing the global arms trade.
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