For instance, the United States aided in the installation of Fidel Castro in Cuba, and then initiated a trade embargo against him when his policies did not meet their expectations. Ronald Reagan's involvement in the Iran-Contra affair suggested United States imperial action in both Latin America and the Middle East. Furthermore, while the United States' intervention in Latin America after the 1800s has been primarily motivated by a desire to establish favorable economic ties and like-minded political leaders, the United States' involvement in the Middle East has gone farther to fit the classic description of imperialism -- "the policy, practice, or advocacy of extending the power and dominion of a nation especially by direct territorial acquisitions or by gaining indirect control over the political or economic life of other areas" (Merriam-Webster 2008). In fact, through two gulf wars and an Iraq conflict that some call the third, the United States has mimicked their British ancestors, searching for land instead of oil. With its Indian Removal Acts and wars with other nations, the so-called Age of Imperialism was only the beginning American imperialistic trends. Though the imperialistic actions of the United States did not manifest themselves as conquests for land in the contemporary area, the United States' involvement in Latin America and the Middle East are just two examples of the state's imperialism. While this involvement often masqueraded as an altruistic...
860). Similarly, while the invasions that constituted the Gulf Wars and the current Iraq conflict were publicly acknowledged as wars to benefit abused populations, many suggest they were really for United States' interests. Thus, while American imperialism may differ from other forms of imperialism in that it has not established itself as a formal conquest for land, the influence that the United States has exercised on other states has resulted in an imperialist legacy.
American Way of War The history of the American Way of War is a transitional one, as Weigley shows in his landmark work of the same name. The strategy of war went from, under Washington, a small scale, elude and survive set of tactics practiced by what seem today to be relatively "quaint" militias, to -- in the 20th century -- a full-scale operation known as "total war." True, "total war"
Cold War Q’s: The Soviet Long Game and the Policy of Containment 1 The origins of the Cold War were in the uneasy alliance between the US and the Soviet Union during WW2. The aim of both nations was to destroy Germany, which alone stood in all of Europe to confront the wave of Marxist-Communism washing over the continent. Spain’s Civil War was a prelude to WW2, and there Franco was victorious. Germany
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