Warren Cohen\'s Assessment of U.S.

Warren Cohen's Assessment of U.S. Foreign Policy agree with Warren Cohen that the U.S. has seen its complacency come crashing down with the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center, and that George W. Bush has used Osama bin Laden as an excuse to invade a nation he was going to invade anyway, to get the man who had tried to kill his father, George Herbert Walker Bush.

George H.W. Bush followed Reagan as president. Elected in 1988, he was familiar with the cold war from 1945 to 1987 using multiple maneuvers by the two super-powers of the world, the United States and the United Soviet Socialist Republic (Russia), to persuade all the other nations that their respective policies were the most beneficial. The resulting build-up of nuclear power and the formation of world-wide organizations, such as the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (NAFTA) and the United Nations were all designed to persuade other nations to support one side or the other. The United States went into debt funding this competition in space, in turning out scientists and in developing athletes to compete in the Olympics. Bush also realized the U.S.S.R. was faltering economically and politically. Little did he know that in 1989, only a year into his presidency, Mikhail Gorbachev would withdraw the Soviet Union from competition.

Even though Bush followed a slipping Reagan administration, he was wise enough to gather a skilled staff to help solve international problems. His national security advisor and Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger was his closest advisor. When Gorbachev withdrew 500,000 troops from its ranks and shut down stations in East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Hungary, essentially allowing the Soviet Union to fall apart, Bush could hardly believe it. He and his advisors interpreted this move as a continuation of the Cold War. He was unwillingly persuaded by James Baker and world events to reduce American troops. In the years that followed, the role of the United States became that of World Policeman. Though forces were downsized, the U.S. retained troops in key locations, such as in Germany and South Korea, throughout the world.

Warren Cohen explains that the leftists in American politics influenced, rather than commanded politics, that they held centrist views and were suspicious of aggressive or benevolent attempts to control oil-producing nations through war or foreign aid. They were against NAFTA and free trade, since workers would lose jobs at home, but were heartened by Bush's decisions to not extend war into Baghdad and to remove Saddam Hussein from power.

Bill Clinton was Bush's successor and rode into power upon the back of his promises to balance the federal budget and reduce the deficit, which he accomplished through raising taxes and cutting the defense budget. He paid little attention to foreign policy and Colin Powell, his chairman of the Joint Chiefs, succeeded in undermining Clinton's validity, as did a few of the other foreign policy staff. Clinton proved poor in matters of foreign policy and paid little attention to the advice of his foreign policy team.