A Liberal
Dose
December 22,
2022
Troy D.
Smith
“How
America Became the Global Policeman”
Last week, I ended with a reference to two-time-Pulitzer-winning
journalist Walter Lippman’s words in his 1947 book Cold War. He warned that the West’s penchant for seeing everything
through the lens of communism-vs.-capitalism, without considering specific
circumstances, would cause dangerous blind spots in national policy. In
particular, he warned that the biggest challenge the West would face in coming
decades would be a global surge in nationalism.
Remember, when a country gains hegemony they have to
constantly be involved in issues all around the world in order to protect their
(suddenly greatly expanded) national interests. It is like a pipeline in which
a constant flow must be maintained, with no leaks or kinks, in order for it all
to work. It is no accident I use a pipeline as an analogy, because in the 20th/21st
century control of oil has been one of the foremost resource considerations for
maintaining hegemony, first by Britain and then by us. Remember, also, third
world countries tend to be controlled by first-world countries… in order to
take their resources.
So when third world countries want to end foreign influence
over their resources -perhaps by throwing off the yoke of colonialism and
declaring their independence, or simply by taking over national control of
their resources and cutting out foreign investors -it creates a kink. It
obstructs the flow. It endangers the financial primacy of the hegemon; it conflicts
with that hegemon’s national interests, even though it concerns a different
nation who want to control their OWN interests. This is what Lippmann meant
about nationalism being a challenge -all those formerly colonized countries
around the world declaring their independence during the twenty years after the
end of WWII, and trying to prevent outsiders from controlling their economies
and resources. Of course, the Soviets were always willing to cheer such actions
on and offer help, caught up as they also were in the Cold War mentality of
East vs. West. But those third world countries were not necessarily looking at
it that way- they were promoting their own national interests, as countries do.
In 1952 the people of Iran kicked out their dictator, the
Shah, who had been closely allied with the U.S. and Britain. They elected a new
leader, Mohammed Mossadegh, who announced he was going to nationalize the oil
industry -cutting out American and British companies and putting the Iranian
government in charge of their own resources. One year later he was overthrown
in a coup orchestrated by the CIA and MI6. He was sent to prison, where he died
three years later, and the Shah was put back into power… and the oil flowed
freely to the west.
In 1950, Juan Jacobo Arbenz Guzman was fairly elected the
leader of Guatemala. Generally considered a moderate, he did give land to
peasants and nationalized the fruit industry. The United Fruit Company, based
in the U.S., decried that as socialism… and soon the CIA engineered a coup,
after which he was replaced by a dictator who protected the interests of
American companies. Twenty years later, similar CIA actions put the brutal
dictator Augusto Pinochet in charge of Chile.
Vietnam was a colony of France, and was brutally occupied by
Japan during the war. A resistance movement, led by Ho Chi Minh, was funded and
trained by the OSS (forerunner of the CIA). The Vietnamese thought that, when
Japan surrendered, they could declare independence -but were instead returned to
France. Despite being communist, Ho appealed to America for help, but we did
not want to interfere with our French allies. So he turned to the Soviets and
China for support -and eventually drove out the French. We took France’s place,
not realizing that -communist or not -the real goal of Ho and most Vietnamese
was nationalist. They didn’t want to spread communism -they just wanted their
country back.
We would have huge problems for decades in Asia, the Middle
East, and Latin America due to these 1950s actions.
To be continued.
--Troy D.
Smith, a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at
Tennessee Tech. His words do not necessarily represent TTU.
You can find all previous entries in this weekly column HERE
A list of other historical essays that have appeared on this blog can be found HERE
Author's website: www.troyduanesmith.com
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