imperialism, US

From 1945, alleged policy of the USA to dominate countries outside US territory. Since the end of World War II the USA has often been accused of engaging in a policy similar to the colonialism of the European nations in the 18th and 19th centuries. According to this allegation, the USA has sought to dominate as much of the world as possible for its own interests, usually without reference to the needs of local people. In response, the USA argues that it has simply stood up for democracy and freedom all over the world, and has risked its own soldiers and money where others have stood aside.

Adopting the role of defender of the free world
At the end of World War II the European nations that had dominated the world in the 19th century, France, Germany, and Great Britain, were so seriously weakened as to be unable to contemplate fulfilling their former colonial roles. Two world wars inside 40 years had destroyed much of their wealth along with their power over their empires. From 1945 the world was clearly dominated by two new superpowers: the USA and the USSR. The USA took on the role of defender of the free world from 1945, with the nations of democratic and capitalist Western Europe dependent on the USA both for defence, through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and for finance under the Marshall Plan, a programme of economic aid. By ensuring a permanent seat for itself on the Security Council of the United Nations (UN), the USA has been able to influence world politics.

In 1947 US president Harry Truman formulated the USA's post‐war foreign policy by creating the Truman Doctrine. Truman first explained this doctrine, or guiding principle of policy, in a speech to the US Congress on 12 March 1947. He stated that the USA would support any free people who had their liberty and democracy threatened by ‘armed minorities or outside pressure’. The Truman Doctrine became the guiding principle of US foreign policy and partly explains US involvement in the Korean War, Vietnam War, and the invasion of Grenada.

US bases were spread all over Western Europe, including large numbers in Britain, Germany, and Turkey. These countries also received nuclear weapons controlled by the USA for targeting on the USSR and its allies in Eastern Europe.

Military imperialism
The first example of US interference in the internal affairs of other nations came in the Korean War of 1950–53. Here the USA sought to halt the spread of communism in southeast Asia by sending troops to fight against the communist‐backed insurgents from the northern Democratic People's Republic of Korea who were invading the Republic of South Korea.

In October 1962 the Cuban missile crisis occurred, when the USA engaged in a stand‐off with the USSR over Russian intentions to place nuclear missiles on the Caribbean island of Cuba. This would have placed US cities within reach of the missiles, something the USA refused to accept, although its own missiles were stationed in Turkey on the borders of the USSR.

Between 1961 and 1975 the USA was involved in the Vietnam War (1954–75), suffering a loss of more than 56,500 US soldiers. Again the USA was fighting to halt the spread of communism and the perceived threat that this posed to the interests of the USA. Eventually the USA was forced to withdraw its forces in 1975 and Vietnam fell under the rule of a communist dictatorship.

All three military involvements, Korea, Cuba, and Vietnam, demonstrated how the USA was prepared to use force, or the threat of force, to make other nations conform to its needs and ideology in the world. By claiming legitimate interests all over the world and making itself the world's ‘police officer’, the USA was able to impose its will on other nations, and felt that it had the right to do so.

This foreign policy continued in the 1980s with support being given to right‐wing groups in South and Central America, often in violation of the human‐rights ideals of the USA. Drug‐running was overlooked in countries such as Columbia and Nicaragua in order to ensure that US global interests were maintained. In 1983 US troops led an invasion of the island of Grenada in the Caribbean after its new government started forging close ties with the USSR and Cuba. In 1986 US planes bombed the Libyan capital of Tripoli in response to the alleged sponsorship of terrorism by the Libyan leader Colonel Moamer al Khaddhafi.

Such actions continued in the 1990s, with US involvement in the Gulf War of 1991. Hundreds of thousands of US troops, as well as dozens of ships and hundreds of warplanes, were used to defeat Iraq after it invaded and annexed Kuwait. This action was taken jointly with nations from all parts of the world, including a number of Islamic countries with whom the USA had traditionally been on poor terms. The USA claimed that its motive for this action was the defence of an independent nation invaded by a large aggressor, but it was accused by many of only being interested in the plight of Kuwait because it is a large oil producer. The loss of the flow of oil to the USA would have threatened its economic power. Again, the actions of the USA could be interpreted as part of an imperialist policy to control other countries.

The USA showed itself willing to defend its interests with force up to the end of the 20th century. In 1998, following the bombing of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which left 224 dead and over 5,000 injured, a cruise missile strike was made on the training camps of the leading international terrorist Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan.

Economic imperialism
In addition to the use of military force, the USA has been accused of using its economic strength to force other nations to comply with its policies. The Marshall Plan of the immediate post‐war years placed the weakened nations of Europe under the influence of the USA. After becoming a communist state in 1959, Cuba was subjected to a total economic blockade by its main trading partner, the USA. This blockade has only begun to be lifted in recent years, with the decision to allow trade in medical supplies coming in July 2000. Iraq is another country to feel the burden of sanctions supported by the USA, with trade and travel virtually banned since the end of the Gulf War in 1991. Many opponents of the tactics used by the USA argue that the sanctions on Cuba and Iraq are simply examples of the imperialistic attitude of the USA and its need to control any nation who threatens its dominance.

Defence of US foreign policy
In its defence the USA argues that it has sacrificed many thousands of its citizens since 1945 to defend the rights of other nations around the world. The threat posed by an aggressive USSR was contained only due the strong resolve of the USA and its allies. Often, as in Korea and the Gulf War, the USA did not act alone, so it cannot be accused of pursuing policies that serve only US interests. US governments also argue that they have been the ones prepared to act while other nations stood by, although all the world has later gained from US action. The USA has often been in a difficult position. As a superpower it is expected to take its full share of the burden of solving the world's problems, but it then faces criticism for the methods it employs.