America Fighting Its Eleventh War of Expansion and Empire-Building
Pacific News Service, Franz Schurmann, Posted: Oct 12, 2001
Since the Revolutionary War, America has experienced ten major wars and has now entered its 11th. Major strategic changes are a shift in its 1950 doctrine and the growing importance of the Asia-Pacific region.
America is 225 years old. From 1776 to 2001, it has waged 11 major wars. The first was the Revolutionary War against Britain (1775-1781). The 11th is the current war against Afghanistan (2001--). Ten of the wars involved foreign enemies. And even in our Civil War, foreign enemies loomed large in the background. Why so many wars? The simplest answer is expansionism. A more complex answer is expansionism and empire building.
America started its expansionist destiny when President Jefferson purchased "Louisiana" from Napoleon. That move extended its border almost to the Pacific Ocean. In its second war (1812-1814) against Britain, America secured New Orleans and thereby became the big new power in the Caribbean.
In the Mexican war of 1846-48, its third, America annexed most of what is now the mainland United States. A few years later Admiral Perry broke open Japan's closed door. During the Civil War (1861-1865), the fourth, Britain schemed with the South, and France seized Mexico. The North's victory eliminated both of these two expansionist countries from the politics of the Americas.
The Spanish-American War (1898-1901), the fifth, marked a shift from expansionism to empire building in the Americas and into East Asia. The sixth, World War I (1914-1918, with direct American participation from April 1917 to November 1918), resulted in a weakened Britain and France, but a strong America. After the war, America reconstructed Germany through an early version of what two decades later would become the Marshall Plan.
The biggest victory for an expansionist America came with World War II, its seventh (September 1939-May 1945 in Europe; December 1941-August 1945 in East Asia with American participation during the latter period). A shattered Europe and an impoverished East Asia fell into America's lap. At this point, expansionism alone could not advance both America's interests and destiny. Thus, President Roosevelt created the United Nations and anchored it in New York.
Concurrently, two old empires, Russia and China, encouraged by World War II victory, developed their own expansionist visions.
From 1781 to 1949 America triumphed from one expansionist and imperial victory to another. But in 1950, for the first time in their history, Americans felt a great fear. In September 1949, the Russian-dominated Soviet Union detonated an atomic device. Less than a month later, the People's Republic of China was formally proclaimed and in January 1950 concluded an alliance with the Soviet Union. Strategists knew it was only a matter of time before the Russians would develop atomic bombs that could inflict Hiroshima-like destruction on America. The combined Chinese and Soviet military manpower, far exceeding that of the nascent NATO, seemed capable of conquering all of Eurasia.
Five months after the signing of the Sino-Soviet alliance, the Korean war broke out, America's eighth. The war resulted in no single winner; but through the 1951 US-Japan peace treaty, the former East Asian foe was transformed into America's ally. Earlier, the same occurred in Europe when the German Federal Republic was accepted into NATO.
Like the Roman Empire at its height during the reign of Octavian Augustus (27 BCE-14 CE), America's leaders in 1950 realized that when great fear replaces great destiny, the best policy is to create coalitions of allies and then find one or more smaller "proxy" enemies to fight. Octavian felt it safer to make peace with Rome's archenemy Parthia (Persia), but found some proxies to defeat, that being ancient Armenia and Israel.
In February 1950 the new National Security Council issued a document called "NSC paper #68" which laid out America's grand strategy. It called for America to develop a strategic preparedness that could simultaneously fight and win a war in Europe as well as a war in East Asia.
In World War II America defeated its two great antagonists, Germany and Japan. But from the Korean War onward, the Pentagon's aim was victory over the chosen proxy while the State Department's goal was to create as big a coalition of allies and friends as possible. Thus President Truman made modern Korea into America's proxy war. But the real war was against America's Parthia, the archenemy "Red China."
The Vietnam War (February 1965-April 30, 1975), the ninth war, was similar to the Korean War but without the great fear despite the radical civil rights and anti-war movements in America and elsewhere. The economy was booming from 1961 to 1969, slowed down, but then boomed again until the oil crisis of late 1973. But recovery came in 1976 and, despite recessions, lasted until recently.
The Gulf War (January-February 1991), America's tenth war, was an awesome victory for the 1950 NSC strategy. The Bush Sr. administration created an effective coalition against the proxy enemy, Iraq. More victory came when the Soviet Union disintegrated in August of that year. Increasingly, "NATO expansionism" moved confidently eastward. The American economy and the World Trade Organization, spread to more and more countries -- the big catch being China
But September 11 disrupted this flow. Once again we see the great fear arising in America, as in 1950. Then, the metaphor for the fear was "communism." Now it is "terrorism." The prime terrorist is Osama bin Laden, head of a "terrorist organization" called "Al-Qa'eda," and a charismatic Muslim spiritual leader.
In 1950 America built anti-communist coalitions because the communists threatened the interests of the "Free World" and freedom-seeking people. But the coalition builders also believed that the Communists embraced an "evil" faith and like the devil, they could delude hordes into following them. The word "brainwashing" made it into the popular vocabulary. Once again we see the State Department building a coalition and the Pentagon choosing a proxy enemy - in this case, Afghanistan. Afghanistan joins the set of proxies chosen since February 1950: Korea, China, Vietnam and Iraq.
A few days after September 11, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld announced the biggest change of the 1950 NSC strategy -- abandoning the old doctrine of fighting two global wars at the same time. While military forces in Europe and East Asia will remain at their current levels, new forces will be brought into the Indian Ocean region. In geopolitical terms the Asia-Pacific region has replaced the Euro-Atlantic region in importance for American interests and destiny.
Franz Schurmann, emeritus professor at UC Berkeley, discusses American expansionism and empire building in his book "The Logic of World Power" (Pantheon, 1974).
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