Page 200 - Berkshire Encyclopedia Of World History Vol I - Abraham to Coal

american empire 85

What prudent merchant will hazard his fortunes in any new branch of
commerce when he knows not that his plans may be rendered unlawful
before they can be executed? • James Madison (1751–1836)

this expanded empire silent or ineffective. McCarthyism, would, in fact, continue to craft the free trade empire that
named after U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, was a polit- it had begun a century earlier.
ical attitude characterized by opposition to elements By the mid-1990s, with a convincing show of military
held to be subversive and by the use of tactics involving power in the Middle East and a commitment to global-
personal attacks. ization in effect, the United States seemed to have the
By the mid-1960s the United States could wield the unlimited ability to wage war and gain access to markets.
power of the dollar and the armed forces to promote its However, this newly expanded hegemony brought a
interests virtually everywhere. However, limits to U.S. new level of criticism with it. Not only human rights
power began to appear.The United States was unable, for groups and activists, but also less developed countries
instance, to remove the Communist government of Fidel and even sectors of the ruling class began to question the
Castro in Cuba but, more to the point, found itself power of transnational corporations and supranational
increasingly tied down in a growing war in Vietnam, institutions, such as the WTO and NAFTA, that deter-
which would ultimately expose the shortcomings of U.S. mined the rules of commerce.The terrorist attacks in the
power both militarily and economically. Despite stag- United States on September 11, 2001 and the positive
gering amounts of firepower, the United States could not response in some parts of the world were another signal
subdue the Vietnamese Communist/nationalist move- that U.S. power had its limits and that the U.S. imperial
ment for liberation. Meanwhile the soaring costs of the mission had its enemies.
war caused massive deficits in the U.S. balance-of-
payments ledger and a run on gold, per the Bretton
Woods system. By 1971 President Richard Nixon had to
essentially concede the limits of empire by abandoning
the Bretton Woods system and taking the country off the
gold standard. Politically, challenges to U.S. interests
emerged globally as well in southeastern Asia, Africa,
Latin America, and other areas where U.S. power was
once unparalleled. By the late 1970s such developments,
worsened by “oil shocks” in 1973 and 1979 and the
emergence of Japan and the Federal Republic of Ger-
many as economic competitors, made the American
empire appear to be on the wane.
Barely a decade later, however, the empire had struck
back. Massive military spending during the administra-
tion of President Ronald Reagan and the collapse of the
Communist system in Eastern Europe left the United
States without a serious rival for power; thus, despite
massive deficits at home, the United States again stood
alone as a global hegemon (influence). Supranational
economic arrangements such as the World Trade Orga-
nization (WTO) and the North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA) and wars against national liberation
movements in Central America signaled to the world that A tribute to the victims of the 9/11 attacks
Washington would not yield its power quietly, that it on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.