US Superpower: Global Influence & Control - Essay Sample

Introduction

The United States has influence and power all over the globe regarding countries' affairs. It has been able to achieve this through collective means of fiscal, military, scientific, and traditional strength along with soft power and diplomatic control. The United States and the Soviet Union, during the cold war, controlled world affairs, but after the Soviet Union dissolution and end of the cold war, the United States was left as the superpower. This paper will intend to explore calculated concerns of the United States and confrontations occurring as a result of actions by the American government over threat concerns during the cold war and post-cold war.

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Cold War

Strategic Concern

In January 1954, the Secretary of state, John Foster Dulles, gave a speech about ''massive retaliation'' a doctrine aimed at frightening the Soviet Union (John Dulles, 1954). The United States enlisted the doctrine of massive retaliation as a result of fear, of an incoming power imbalance, less ability to fight back, and triumph during a strike. President Eisenhower's regime grew concern towards the Soviet Union after the launch of its first artificial earth satellite (Sputnik 1) in 1957. Afterward, the Soviet Union made its first test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM); therefore, the U.S thought they were being outpaced in missile production (missile gap). The administration believed reliance on huge nuclear collection for deterrence could reduce conventional forces while they preserve military power and prestige and the ability to defend the West's. (John Dulles, 1954)

Further, President Eisenhower was convinced that a robust national economy, relying on low taxation, was vital for a well-funded national defense. Relying on nuclear munitions to prevent an attack would permit the United States to be well-informed of military strength by the Soviet Union. A Mutually assured destruction promise by the United States possibly prevented any military provocation from the Soviet Union and its allies to any part of the western bloc (John Dulles, 1954). The president's tenacity was to make the relation with the Soviet Union more effective and less costly by relying more on nuclear power than military force. Mr. Eisenhower stated that the control of the military alone has zero chances of containing an expansive land power of a communist sphere.

Consequently, a country's power to defend itself must be strengthened by additional warnings of massive retaliatory power. President Eisenhower being an economic conformist, held that the society and economy of the United States couldn't withstand the strain of overpowering defense budget for long. United States resilience dependency on nuclear weapons as the pillar of defense retorted the concern that; atomic weapons were more effective in threatening likely enemies and ultimately less costly compared to an enormous standing army costs. (John Dulles, 1954)

Confrontation

The doctrine of mutually assured destruction by President Eisenhower's administration came under heavy criticism. It was considered as too antagonistic and duplicate to the first strike. A former British prime minister, Churchill, argued that the Soviet Union might be wanting expansion and against the war. Further, he stated that active consideration of the first attack by one side and the other a nuclear exchange would result in dreadful control of weapons (Winston Churchill, 1946). Churchill also said that the western bloc should consider permanent war prevention, which is in the interest of both the United States and the Soviet Union. Later, Churchill wrote a letter to President Eisenhower after Stalin's death suggesting the United States approach Moscow, but his opinion was rejected.

Post-Cold War

Strategic Concern

After the September 11th attack on the United States, the Bush Administration was committed to deal with al Qaeda, a terrorist group believed to be responsible for the bombing. In 2003, after the explosion, there was an accusation of Iraq's support to the nuclear weapon program and the country's support for terrorism. The Intelligence community gathered materials that would support the claims of weapons of mass destruction procurement by Dictator Saddam Hussein. The Intelligence managed to acquire a few sources which they used as evidence to convince Americans an invasion was necessary. Collin Powell, the Secretary of state during his speech, stated that the informant disclosed that Saddam has access to biological weapons and recently procured aluminum cylinders, which indicated nuclear proliferation (Colin Powell, 2003). Mr. Powell also said that there were transcripts of Iraq conversation that inferred the dictator was attempting to conceal his weapons programs.

As a result of intelligence failure on September 11th, attack, President Bush and his administration remained on high alert. They needed any form of evidence to justify the invasion of Iraq and the collapsing of the Saddam Hussein regime. Therefore, fear of another possible imminent attack caused the President Bush regime to overlook. Mr. Powell's presentation to the United Nations cited United stated and allies' duties to endorse the disarmament obligation as per the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1441. Therefore, through this base, Mr. Powell presented evidence of Iraq's connection to al Qaeda, Saddam nuclear procurement plans, access to biological weapons to obtain congressional approval to strike. (Colin Powell, 2003)

Confrontation

The evidence presented by the Secretary of state, Collin Powell was significantly questioned and evidence examiners, especially Intelligence analysts in the United States, Britain consistently declared evidence and sources to be false. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director, Tyler Drumheller in the Europe division, transcribed that Collin Powell speech and what led to it as the total failure of CIA (Colin Powell, 2003). Drumheller was a doubter of most of the Intelligence gathered to back invading Iraq, specifically the CIA's dependency on Curveball, an Iraq Rebel. Tyler indicated that the United States had not corroborated any materials provided to them by Curveball, in spite of caveat by Germany, the country to question him initially. After Tyler's review of Mr. Powell's speech, he concluded that it remained the same, and some of it was unverified and incomplete.

Conclusion

The United States feared the increased production of nuclear weapons by the Soviet Union and its allies. The communists, the Soviet Union in 1948, initiated a blockade in Berlin and also the Korean War of 1950-1953. These events had shown the United States that the communists were prepared to use military power to chase their political goals. As a superpower, the United States has control of world affairs; therefore, they have to prevent attacks by disarmament.

References

Winston Churchill. March, 1946. Iron Curtain Speech, Fulton College, Missouri. https://winstonchurchill.org/resources/speeches/1946-1963-elder-statesman/the-sinews-of-peace/

John F. Dulles. January 2, 1954. Secretary Dulles' Strategy of Massive Retaliation. http://college.cengage.com/history/wadsworth_9781133309888/unprotected/ps/dulles.html

Colin Powell. February 6, 2003. Transcript of Powell's UN Presentation. http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/02/05/sprj.irq.powell.transcript/