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American Policing on the World StageThe American “policing” role developed because of the Cold War, but it was primarily a means for protecting and assisting economic interests for itself and its allies as illustrated by recent events as well as earlier ones. When George H. Bush called for the Gulf War in order to push Iraq out of Kuwait, he cast Hussein in the role of “villain” and Kuwait as the “victim” in his address to Congress (Bush, 1991). Colin Powell (2003) would do a similar stunt a decade later in the events leading up to the post-9/11 invasion of Iraq, which was accused of harboring WMDs and using mobile weapons labs to hide them (labs that would in fact never be found). In both cases, the pretext for war was based on phony intelligence—but the point was never about sticking up for the little guy or defending the world from evil. It was always about America being the world’s policeman as a means of protecting its own and its allies’ interests. In the Middle East, those allies are clearly Israel and Saudi Arabia, and toppling regimes (Iraq, Libya, Syria, Iran) is what they desire. Since the start of the Cold War, regime change has been America’s bread and butter all over the world. From Italy to Iran to Guatemala to Laos...
Recent events in the Middle East show as much, as do earlier incidents like the Bay of Pigs and Gulf of Tonkin just to name a few of the more egregious examples (Paul, 2008).
America had become the world’s superpower in the aftermath of WWII. The U.S. had helped to turn the tide against the Axis, and its technological superiority (in terms of true WMDs) was demonstrated not once but twice over Japan. Dulles (1954) explained it sufficiently well when he (under)stated the policy of the U.S. in the face of Soviet “aggression”—a term Bush I would apply to the heinous act of Hussein in the early 1990s of daring to oppose Western machinations and annex Kuwait for himself. For Dulles (1954) the policy was simple: “The way to deter aggression is for the free community to be willing and able to respond vigorously at places and with means of its own choosing.” Those words of “of its own choosing” would be especially important—as Dulles himself would demonstrate in the Bay of Pigs incident—an attempt at regime change in Cuba that certainly qualified as America choosing its own method of dealing with upstarts who dared challenge the empire’s police…
Social Impact of Cold War & Terrorism The Cold War is often associated with the idea of making great and physical divides between the good and the bad of the world. It was a symbolic representation that extended for about 30 years on the expectation that the greatest powers of the world could, under the right circumstances, impose a sort of benign order on the planet by isolating the evil empires
Cold War Era Many films about the cold war era, especially the early films, speak out against its ideals, while others support these ideals. Below is a consideration of selected Cold War era films, and how these were influenced by the Cold War. Dr. Strangelove Dr. Strangelove is subtitled "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb." Its producer/director is Stanley Kubrick and the film was released during 1964. The
The legacy of the Cold War, as this writer shows, is ever changing, and as tensions in the Middle East continue to grow, there is still much to be written in history books about the Cold War and its effect on the U.S. And the world (White 315-317). Another writer puts it even more bluntly, stating, "The Cold War was an internecine conflict between two offspring of Western civilization;
On the other hand there was growing opposition in intelligentsia circles to pro-soviet regimes in all East European countries and Eastern Germany. If in earlier years Soviet Union was able to aid economies of these countries in order to support communist regimes, then starting from the years fro stagnation in late 1970's the situation changed. Findings were shortening and the U.S.S.R. was not able to support unprofitable industries of
In other words, the Soviet Union has lost in men several times more than Britain and the United States together." Stalin's reply to Churchill reflects his nations' sentiments of fear and vulnerability, even while he disingenuously rages that Eastern Europe has 'chosen' communism and alliance with the Soviet block in the Warsaw Pact: "One can ask therefore, what can be surprising in the fact that the Soviet Union, in
Cold War dominated American culture, consciousness, politics and policy for most of the 20th century. Even after the fall of the Berlin Wall, which symbolized the fall of the Iron Curtain and therefore finale of the Cold War, Cold War rhetoric and politics continued especially in the War on Terror. Depictions of the Cold War in American literature and film parallel the changes that took place in American ways