United States after World War II Essay Example for Free

United States after World War II Essay The influence of the United States over political and economic affairs worldwide sharply decreased after World War II. US officials found this psychologically difficult to accept, given their country’s key role in the war. Jeffery E. Garten further elaborated on this sentiment: â€Å"Part of America’s outdated self-image is still related to the memory of the Pax Americana, the era of omnipotence for the twenty years following World War II†¦These were very special years in the American experience, to be fondly remembered, even cherished. But they were, looking back, a transition period†¦We need to find a way to put these years and what they represent behind us† (Paarlberg, 1995). As far as Garten knew, the US clearly had difficulty in coming to terms with its changing position in the world. As a result, outward-looking internationalism dominated US policymaking after World War II. This trend was most visible in the post-World War II history of US relations with other countries. After World War II, US foreign policy broke away from its historical tradition of avoiding permanent diplomatic alliances. This departure had a strong impact on American politics and economy (Paarlberg, 1995). The US Economy after World War II US foreign policy conventionally espoused inward-looking diplomatic neutrality beyond the Western Hemisphere and parts of the Pacific. In the 1930s, the US Congress passed three separate neutrality acts, which legally prohibited the US from taking sides in the military or diplomatic disputes of Europe or Asia. It was not until the Great Depression that protectionism was discredited through the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930. However, this law faced strong opposition from industrialists and political partisans. These parties believed that the domestic market was large enough to accommodate certain amounts of trade protection and corporate parochialism (Paarlberg, 1995). Unusual Economic Supremacy Right after World War II, a period when rival economies in Europe were exhausted and destroyed, the US was enjoying a strong economy and was even strengthening its technological superiority. High production demands during the war increased the country’s Gross National Product (GNP) by 50% in real terms. By 1950, the US economy was 5 times larger than that of the Soviet Union and 10 times than that of Japan. In sharp contrast, World War II reduced Western European economies by 25% (Paarlberg, 1995). The US economic boom continued after the war through unilateral military and economic policy initiatives, such as the Truman Doctrine (March 12, 1947) and the Marshall Plan (July 12, 1947). These strategies allowed the US to dominate political reconstruction in both West Germany and Japan, as well as the establishment of American naval and air forces across the Atlantic and the Pacific. Allies and defeated adversaries alike were offered economic advantages such as grants, technical assistance, credits and market access – without immediate repayment or demands for perfect reciprocity. The US dollar replaced gold as an international key currency, allowing the US to dominate international financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund – World Bank (IMF-WB) (Paarlberg, 1995). The Ideology of the Cold War The US did not carry out these measures without any underlying economic or security motives. Perceived threats of Stalinism (and later Maoism) prompted the American government to secure its political, economic and military influence overseas. The relative power of the US Congress was weakened in order to give the US President unprecedented peacetime authority over the deployment and use of both conventional and nuclear weapons, as well as unsupervised clout over the clandestine operations abroad of the then-newly-established Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Nations who were previously wartime allies suddenly found themselves fighting one another simply because they were at the opposite ends of the Cold War ideological fence (Paarlberg, 1995). Communism versus Capitalism: The Consolidation of Power At the height of the Cold War, both the US and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) scrambled to find foreign allies that will espouse their respective ideologies. Countries that were allied either with the US or the Soviet Union received generous political, economic and military aid. There were even leaders from these nations that rose to power through US or Soviet backing. The Cold War was not just an â€Å"arms race† but an ideological struggle as well. The Soviet Union. Beginning in 1945, governments across Eastern Europe were characterized with â€Å"people’s democracies† or Soviet-type regimes that had a Communist form of domestic administration and whose foreign policies were dictated by the USSR. These â€Å"people’s democracies† isolated and destroyed opposing political factions, expropriated large land holdings, instituted collective farming (except in Poland) and nationalized almost all industries. Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Albania and East Germany were eventually included into the Soviet Union. With the cooperation of these countries, the USSR founded the Communist Information Bureau (Cominform). However, Yugoslavia was expelled from the Cominform in 1948 due to Yugoslavian President Josip Broz Tito’s resistance against Soviet interference in his country’s affairs (MSN Encarta, 2008). The US The US countered by establishing right-wing monarchial and military dictatorships in Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America starting from the 1960s. In Africa, it backed the oppressive regimes of Idi Amin in Uganda (1971), King Hassan II in Morocco (1961) and Mobutu Sese Seko in Zaire (1965). In Asia, US-engineered dictatorships included those of Ngo Dinh Diem in South Vietnam (1955), Park Chung Hee in South Korea (1961) and Pol Pot in Cambodia (1975). In Latin America, Augusto Pinochet of Chile (1973), Francois and Jean-Claude Duvalier of Haiti (1957 and 1971, respectively) and Nicaragua’s Anastacio Somoza Garcia (1937) and Anastacio Somoza Debayle (1956). In Europe, the US sponsored the governments of Spain’s Francisco Franco (1939) and Greece’s George Papadopoulos (1967) (Bernstein and Sydell, 1995). American Policies and Practices in International Relations (Late 1940s – Mid-1950s) The US radically increased its defense spending from the late 1940s to the mid-1950s due to the Cold War and the spread of Communism in Korea, Eastern Europe and China during the said period. Companies, particularly those related with the defense industry, saw this as an opportunity for immense profits. However, over-reliance of American enterprises on defense contracts resulted in the emergence of the military-industrial complex (MIC). The MIC, in turn, heavily influenced US foreign policy from the late 1940s to the mid-1950s (Schultz, 1999). The Military-Industrial Complex (MIC) The increase in the federal government’s military spending prompted enterprises to do business with the US Department of Defense. There were at least 40,000 defense contractors working for the federal government by the mid-1950s, providing services such as the manufacturing of uniforms, weapons and ammunition. Universities and technology-related firms were used as research and development departments, wherein new weapons and fighting strategies were created. By the 1970s, the US Department of Defense had surpassed the 75 largest corporations in America in terms of economic assets. This led to criticisms that the US was building a permanent â€Å"war economy† (Schultz, 1999). In order to sustain this â€Å"war economy,† the US government had no choice but keep on waging wars with other countries. When the US economy underwent a recession in 1956, President Dwight Eisenhower responded by boosting the defense budget (Schultz, 1999). He likewise staged a number of armed conflicts with other nations. Hence, Eisenhower’s administration was known for disputes such as clashes with Red China over Taiwan (1955) and the Berlin Crisis (1959) (MSN Encarta, 2008). Conclusion The US is still living under the illusion of Pax Americana – a new world order wherein every nation on earth is subservient to American interests. As a result, it used Pax Americana to get away with imperialism and violating the rights of other nations to self-determination. The US must realize that if it is entitled to liberty and justice, the same holds true for other countries. Real freedom and prosperity can never be attained through political and economic interference, as well as through military aggression. References Bernstein, D. Sydell, L. Third World Traveler. (1995). Friendly Dictators. Retrieved August 31, 2008, from http://www. thirdworldtraveler. com/Dictators/Friendly_Dictators. html MSN Encarta. (2008). Dwight D. Eisenhower. Retrieved August 31, 2008, from http://encarta. msn. com/encyclopedia_761554032/Eisenhower. html#s1 MSN Encarta. (2008). Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Retrieved August 31, 2008, from http://encarta. msn. com/encyclopedia_761553017/ Union_of_Soviet_Socialist_Republics. html Paarlberg, R. (1995). Leadership Abroad Begins at Home: US Foreign Economic Policy After the Cold War. Washington, D. C. : Brooklings Institution Press. Schultz, S. K. University of Wisconsin System. (1999). The 1950s: The Cold War and the Affluent Society. Retrieved August 31, 2008, from http://us. history. wisc. edu/hist102/lectures/lecture24. html