The United States Is an Empire - World History Essay

The United States is an Empire

World History Essay

Many people believe that the United States is a great country compared to all others because of that fact that they have never done anything to jeopardize that. But they fail to see that the United States isn’t all that great- after World War two the United States has behaved more like an empire rather than a responsible Superpower because in Iran they’re willing to use military conquest and overthrow the leader, and in Korea they immediately went against them for assassinate with communism, and finally in Vietnam they quickly sent in military and expanded it there to practically forced their ideology on Vietnam while pretending as is they were helping them.

The United States and Soviet Union were once allies during World War one and Worlds War two . The United States and Soviet Union came to be the causes of the cold war because of their conflict of “a complex interplay of ideological, political, and economic factors, which led to shift between cautions cooperation and often bitter superpower rivalry over the years. The distinct differences in the political systems of the two countries often prevented them from reaching a mutual understanding on key policy issues and even, as inthe case of the Cuban missile crisis, brought them to the brink of war”(no author included/ loc.gov). As you can see the United States believed in having a democratic government while Soviet Union wanted to have a communist government, due to them not being able to agree on their ideologies there was a conflict created. Both sides wanted to spread their ideologies all over the world- this is where the policy of containment comes into to play. The policy of containment basically means to keep communism where it is and to democracy where it is without having it spread any further, it does not mean to get rid of the ideology all together it simply means to stop from expanding. Since both the United States and Soviet Union wanted to spread their ideologies, they both used the policy of containment, but the United States went a little more forward with it.

J.V Statin believe that the United States was acting more like Hitler, as he stated “a point to be noted is that in this respect Mr. Churchill and his friends bear a striking resemblance to Hitler and his friends… Mr. Churchill sets out to unleash war with race theory, asserting that only English- speaking nations are superior nations”(J.V Statin on Post-war). Statin argued that the United States is during what Hitler did, by trying to build up a superior nation by cancelling out any other that isn’t what they want. This is important because Hitler also ran an empire like country, so the Soviet Union is saying that the United States is to an empire.

Once the Soviet Union tried to take hold Vietnam the “ Ho appealed for aid from the United States, but because the United States was embroiled in the escalating Cold War with the communist USSR, it distrusted Ho’s communist leaning and allied with the French instead.”(WH notes/ no author included). The United States clearly ignored the fact that North Vietnam was seeking help from the United States, but because they thought that they were already too communist and because of their secretive ways they decided to side with the French. Once that was done the United States immediately rushed their military into Vietnam and, “the U.S. government began to increase its military aid to the South Vietnam to help Diem’s failing government in its civil war against the communist from the north.” (WH class notes/ no author included). As stated the Vietnam war should’ve been civil war, but the United States claims that they only interfered because of what is called the domino theory. The domino theory is basically the belief that if one whole country in Asia falls in communism then all of Asia will soon fall into that. Therefore the United States used this as a reason for helping out South Vietnam.

Had the United States not rush their military into Vietnam there would be no war. The United States caused the Vietnam war because of their need to force their ideology by bringing in their military and expanding. The Vietnam people didn’t even know the difference between being a democracy and being communist, “ they wanted everything to do with the war particularly this foreign presence of the United States of America to leave them alone in peace,” meaning they didn’t even know what was going on and all they wanted was to have peace. So the Vietnam people were willing to defend whichever side was there at the moment to defend them. Therefore the Vietnam people would have never gone to war if it wasn’t for the United States and them forcing their ideology.

another reason why the United States it is to be considered an empire is because in Korea they didn’t offend North Korea because of them associating with communism therefore South Korea and North Korea had to go to war with each other because of their beliefs in different ideologies, in which the United States supported South Korea because they were against communism. they knew that after leaving Korea it would’ve left them vulnerable to become