The idealistic motives expressed by American presidents during the Cold War were incoherent, and so were the economic arguments they made to justify the quest for global power. The claim that American prosperity pivots on the maintenance of peace and stability abroad—so trade routes and access to strategic economic resources will remain secure—is another Cold War fallacy that is still with us. President Eisenhower once stated it plainly:
From my viewpoint, foreign policy is, or should be, based primarily upon one consideration. That consideration is the need for the U.S. to obtain certain raw materials to sustain its economy and, when possible, to preserve profitable foreign markets for our surpluses. Out of this need grows the necessity for making certain that those areas of the world in which essential raw materials are produced are not only accessible to us, but their populations and governments are willing to trade with us on a friendly basis.
Neither the United States nor any other nation has ever been deprived of essential goods and brought down by economic warfare. Smuggling, bribery, and middlemen eager to make money invariably evade the tightest embargoes. The Soviet Union effortlessly outfoxed the U.S. wheat embargo following the invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 by purchasing greater quantities from middlemen like Spain or Argentina. Penurious North Korea, with its millions of starving citizens, remains defiant in the face of massive international sanctions. Fidel Castro’s Cuba has circumvented more than 50 years of a United States embargo. Despite the expenditure of $44 billion dollars annually and the employment of the world’s most proficient military and law enforcement assets, the United States has been unable to staunch the flow of narcotics flooding across its borders to satisfy millions of American consumers.
American liberty does not depend upon other nations embracing democracy—and never has, even during the Cold War. Nor does American prosperity require bases around the world and military leverage over friend and foe alike. Yet despite their patent falsity, these political orthodoxies continue to be invoked by the American empire to justify its global force projection, endless wars, and national security state.
