America has always been a reluctant superpower but accepted the role because the alternatives were so much worse. There was no doubt that if the Soviet Union had become the world’s number one – or the sole – superpower, the world would have been a much more dangerous place.
We did participate in a few adventures during the years in between WWII and the fall of the Wall, but both were never about capturing territory or a quest for riches or resources, both Korea and Vietnam were proxy wars, active defenses against the spread of the Chinese form of communism. It gets lost in the dust of history, but America’s opponent in both Korea and Vietnam was China by proxy. In real terms, America’s conflict with China began on June 25, 1950 when Chinese backed North Korean forces invaded American backed South Korea.
The false narrative that America was hegemonic and interested in imperialistic expansion was one sold to American liberals at the time by the Soviet Union and the Chinese Communist Party to be used by their American fan base in their anti-war protests – while the USSR was invading eastern European states (Czechoslovakia was the last country in Eastern Europe to fully fall to communism in 1948) and China annexed Tibet in 1959 with the intent of executing Mao’s Five Fingers of Tibet , the Chinese strategy to annex Ladakh (India), Nepal, Sikkim (India), Bhutan, and Arunachal Pradesh (India).
It seems only logical we wanted Korea and Vietnam to adopt America capitalism and form of government, because that was seen as the best barrier against communist expansionism.
I did not really appreciate how reluctant America was until the Soviet Union began its slow-motion collapse with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and ending with the official dissolution of the USSR two years later in 1991. Shortly thereafter, decades of military planning, base locations, force sizes and political strategies went onto the ash heap along with the Supreme Soviet. America was like a dog that had been chasing the same car for years and finally catching it, was stuck wondering what they were going to do with it.
China was just beginning to figure out how to build its own global influence in the 90’s, so the end of the USSR left America as the last man standing, the world’s lone superpower.
I raise this reluctance, not as a negative, merely to counter the constant cacophonous din from the left about how American hegemony and imperialism have ruined the world.
There are forces out there that have or currently do seek global domination. Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Soviet Union, Mao’s China, to a great extent, the Mad Mullah’s of Persia seek regional domination over a part of the world that if successful, would give them de facto domination of the world, and one could include radical Islamists, have all tried to spin the wheel of hegemonic fortune at one time or the other – and who stopped them?
America, of course.
And what did we ask in return?
Nothing.
America’s reluctance to be the 800-pound gorilla became acutely obvious during the last two Democrat presidential administrations – and it has hurt our foreign policy efforts. No matter how great an athlete is, it is hard to trust him with the last shot of the game with the clock running down if everything he telegraphs to the team says he will not take the shot, that he does not see himself as the best player on the floor.
Republicans have done themselves no favors with misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq, neither have been confidence boosters. In general terms, it could be said America in on an 0 for 4 streak in winning wars and now that China is building islands to expand their control over greater ocean resources, some think it is possible, maybe even likely, that China will challenge the US by invading Taiwan, a prize for which they have lusted since Chang Kai-Shek fled there in December of 1949.
Given the posture China’s diplomats have taken by openly challenging the clearly unprepared Biden State Department, they most certainly believe they are, at least, on equal footing with the US on the world stage.
Foreign policy requires the projection of power as a credible threat. Sanctions alone are a poor substitute.
America must discard the belief that we are just one country of many, not really any better or worse, just average, something that took hold during the Obama years of “leading from behind”. American political leaders must end their practice of hanging out America’s domestic dirty laundry for our enemies around the world to see – Russia and China have already chastised us for being a racist nation, echoing the claims coming from the American left. America is going to be called on to save the world once again. It may not be today or tomorrow, but our historical reluctance and the weakness being telegraphed to the world by the current administration assure it is coming.
I wish I were sure we will answer the bell.