The US Intervention in Genocides Essay Example

In her book, Power explains her observations regarding how policymakers in the United States have been reluctant in the condemnation of mass atrocities such as genocides (Power 6). The U.S in some instances has not taken the responsibility of having a military intervention in the countries affected, and the policymakers avoid the term "genocide" altogether (Meierhenrich 18). Instead, they base their arguments on the basis that the response would lead to an acceleration of violence (Power 7). However, such justification in the name of national interests is ill-fated. The primary focus will be on the Rwanda, Cambodia, Hiroshima, Armenia, The Holocaust, and the native American genocides. The primary purpose of this essay is to explain the intervention of the United States in specific genocides and describe why it did not intervene in others.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Rwanda genocide is one of the mass atrocities that the United States failed to intervene. The Clinton congress watched as the horrific events unfolded in Rwanda in 1994 (Silver 42). The Clinton administration was provided with all the details including pictures and videos of what was going on in Rwanda, but it said that the U.S government had no desire to intervene (Power 7). At that moment, the U.S troops had just pulled out from mission keeping in Somalia, and the state vowed that it would not interfere with another conflict that it could not comprehend or between tribes and clans it was not aware of. The U.S also found Rwanda to be a country where it had no national interests (Silver 42). At the time of the genocide, humanitarians and diplomats gave details of the Hutus and Tutsi's ad the information was provided in real time. However, the U.S and other western states failed to respond even though they knew about the mass killings before, during, and after the genocide.

When the National Security Advisor to the president was asked to explain why the U.S could not help, he said that the country has no friends and it simply had no interests to pursue in Rwanda (Levinger 30). At that time, the French were training some militia in Rwanda who supported the Tutsi's. In connection to this, France was one of the allies of the United States. Hence the former's involvement in the Rwandan genocide would have been a reason for the United States not to intervene. In June 1994, the United Nation's secretary drafted a letter that indicated the number of peacekeepers that the United States was willing to provide (Silver 65). Other letters from bipartisan panels of Congress were written, but the Clinton government failed to call for rapid action to stop the mass killings in Rwanda. However, President Clinton asked the government rebels to halt the killings themselves, and on April, the White House issued a statement demanded that the Rwandan Army and the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) must act accordingly to stop the violence with immediate effect (Levinger 35).

With the Congress waiting upon the president to intervene in Rwanda and the White House relying on the UN for peacekeeping, the genocide continued (Silver 70). One of the most significant reasons why Rwanda is bitter towards the United Nations is because the latter's peacekeepers departed from a school where thousands of citizens had sought refuge. A report written in 1999 regarding the failure of the United Nations to protect Rwanda included a plea and fourteen recommendations to the U.N chief to initiate an action plan to prevent the occurrence of another genocide (Silver 65). Had the U.S government intervened, less people would have been killed. The Hiroshima genocide is another instance whereby there was no intervention from the United States.

In 1945, President Harry. S. Truman, the President of the United States, released a statement that required the Japanese armed forces to surrender during the second world war. The ultimatum also said that if they did not surrender, Japan would face massive destruction. President Truman had sought advice through his team of advisors regarding whether it was necessary to drop the atomic bomb in Japan (Herken 29). However, in a previous battle involving Iwo Jima and Okinawa, may people, both Japanese and Americas, had been killed and the Japanese navy and army were destroyed too. Japan was not ready to surrender unconditionally but proceeded to use suicidal Kamikaze attacks that left the U.S military frustrated (Herken 35). There was a common belief that the Japanese would fight to the end even though the ongoing war left many casualties. The main areas targeted for the bombings were Nagasaki and Hiroshima due to the latter's military importance. The U.S is the only state that used nuclear weapons.

Had the U.S not intervened, many lives would have been saved. In the first blast, at least 70,000 people got killed while many others died from cancer caused by radiation. Five years after the bombing, more than 200,000 deaths had been reported (Herken 27). The Nagasaki bombing that took place on 9th August the same year killed at least 80,000 people, and it is at that time that Japan unconditionally surrendered. However, President Truman defended his action saying that the two bombings saved the lives of about 250,000 Allied troops. The president explained that sacrificing Hiroshima and Nagasaki was urgent and necessary (Herken 36). However, if the U.S had not dropped the bombs in Japan, the death toll would have been higher for both Americans and the Japanese by the end of World War II because the latter could not surrender even in the previous battles. The intervention was chaos since it left thousands of people dead and others severely injured. The Cambodian genocide is also an example of an instance that the U.S used nuclear weapons.

The Cambodian genocide was executed by the Khmer Rouge regime which was led by Pol Pot. More than 1.8 million people were killed between 1975 and 1975 which made a total of approximately 24% of the Cambodian population at that time. The primary goal of the Khmer Rouge was to transform the country into a socialist agrarian republic and to fulfill their purpose; they went to the labor camps in the countryside where mass killings were made. The people who were in the opposition were abducted and killed after which they were buried in mass graves. The genocide came to an end in 1979 when Cambodia was invaded by Vietnam and defeated Khmer Rouge.

The United States did not intervene in the Cambodian genocide. Instead, it was involved in the mass killings of citizens (Kiernan 332). In 1965, the U.S carried out a bombing campaign until the time when Khmer was defeated. During that time, over 5,000 casualties were reported every year for fourteen years. The U.S bombings also caused some of the deaths. Between 1965 and 1979, the U.S had bombed about eighty-three sites in Cambodia. Moreover, there were allegations that the United States supported the Cambodian civil war (Kiernan 331). More lives would have been spared if the U.S did not drop their bombs in Cambodia. The Cambodian genocide was executed by the Khmer Rouge regime which was led by Pol Pot. More than 1.8 million people were killed between 1975 and 1975 which made a total of approximately 24% of the Cambodian population at that time. The primary goal of the Khmer Rouge was to transform the country into a socialist agrarian republic and to fulfill their purpose; they went to the labor camps in the countryside where mass killings were made. The people who were in the opposition were abducted and killed after which they were buried in mass graves. The genocide came to an end in 1979 when Cambodia was invaded by Vietnam and defeated Khmer Rouge (Kiernan 350).

The United States did not intervene in the Cambodian genocide. Instead, it was involved in the mass killings of citizens. In 1965, the U.S carried out a bombing campaign until the time when Khmer was defeated (Kiernan 331). During that time, over 5,000 casualties were reported every year for fourteen years. The U.S bombings also caused some of the deaths. Between 1965 and 1979, the U.S had bombed about eighty-three sites in Cambodia. Moreover, there were allegations that the United States supported the Cambodian civil war (Kiernan 335). More lives would have been spared if the U.S did not drop their bombs in Cambodia. The U.S intervened in the Armenian genocide and helped save the citizens' lives.

The Armenian genocide also referred as the Armenian Holocaust was the killing of 1.5 million people and it happened before and after the first world war (Dadrian 78). The genocide was executed in two phases, the massive murder of the strong males followed by the execution of women and children. The deportees were denied food and water and subjected to torture. During the time of the genocide, the United States had a strong presence within the Ottoman empire. After the U.S was requested to take a moral standing regarding the matter, the consuls were allowed to give humanitarian aid to the victims of the genocide (Dadrian 111). Some of the interventions included removing the Armenians from the battlefield and smuggling them to the Roman Empire. As the genocide continued, the occurrence of events was broadcasted to the Americas, a situation that prompted the raising of funds through aid programs where people contributed money to help save the Armenians. President Roosevelt referred to the genocide as the most significant crime of the war. The intervening did not cause any chaos since the smuggling operations happened secretly. If the United States did not intervene, may women and children could have been killed in the desert. In the Holocaust genocide in Germany, the Americans were late to intervene.

The holocaust genocide also famously referred to as the Shoah occurred during the second world war. Holocaust is a Greek term used to refer to "sacrifice by fire." In this massacre, Germany with help from its collaborators systematically killed six million European Jews and a portion of the people from the same religion who lived in Europe between 1941 and 1945 (Rosenbaum 22). The persecution had been systematically planned by the Nazi people who had the notion that the Germans had racial superiority while the Jews were inferior. During the genocide, other groups like the blacks and people with disability were also targeted. The persecution by the German was based on its target's political, behavioral as well as their ideologies (Rosenbaum 15). The Nazis believed that the Jews posed a significant danger to the country,

Although the Americans had enough access of information regarding the persecution of the Jews by the Nazi's, their effort to rescue and help in saving the refugees were limited. At that time, the United States was economically devastated due to the Great Depression, and also it held prejudices against immigrants (Rosenbaum 30). Both the president of the United States and the Congress did nothing to reduce the strictness of the immigration process. Instead, harsher rules to restrict immigration were implemented (Rosenbaum 42). The legislation made it difficult for the refugees fleeing from Europe to enter the United States and seek for safety. During World War II, the U.S collaborated with the allies to fight the axis powers in its effort to defend democracy. However, in 1944, the War Refugee Board was created to assist with the rescue of the Jews who were the primary target for murder by the Nazis. If the U.S had intervened early, many Jews would not have been killed. The state's late intervention to rescue the refugees led to massive loss of lives. However, even with the late response, tens of thousands of Jews were saved, and millions of American soldiers defeated Nazi Germany.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the United States was reluctant to respond to some of the mass atrocities that were happening in some countries...