Empire of security
These same themes carried forward into post World War II rhetoric and actions, first with the Cold War and subsequently with the “war on terror.” John Foster Dulles, Immerman’s fifth subject, cared even less about liberty and was more concerned about security. Dulles became known for his “moral crusade [of] reducing statesmanship to a religious contest between good and evil.” With a strong Christian fundamentalist background, Dulles championed the right of the U.S. to lead the Free World “by exercising…its spiritual, ideological, economic, and, most important, military power. Dulles did not concern himself with the liberty of those subject to U.S. rules.” Liberty was in his vocabulary, but “without the need to provide substance to its meaning.”
It was during Dulles’ tenure that the not-so-covert coups in Guatemala and Iran occurred, under the auspices of his brother Allen Dulles, head of the newly created CIA. The Iranian coup was “an unintended consequence” of his influence (taking place in association with the British), a “watershed in the growth of the American empire” and its further consequences or ‘blowback’ that is even more evident today than previously. And in Guatemala, the country was “liberated…from its own people, and as a consequence made a mockery of the very word liberty” (italics in original).
Immerman summarizes the results of Dulles’ tenure saying: “[T]he empire Dulles was so instrumental in constructing was unequivocally not an empire of liberty. Whether wrestling the imperial mantle from the British and French or building on the foundation laid by American decades earlier, what became the outposts of America’s empire in Southeast Asia, in the Middle East, in Latin America, and elsewhere allowed for little liberty within its populations.”
Empire of full spectrum dominance
The final subject of Immerman’s careful research is Paul Wolfowitz, a neocon player within the Bush government. His influence carried on well before the Bush regime, and even when an insider, his seemingly lower position of influence belied the significant part he played in creating the empire of “full spectrum dominance.” Wolfowitz was well schooled in the theory of nuclear warfare, creating the base necessary for believing in the utility and practicality of first use pre-emptive nuclear weapons warfare.
Fitting the motives to suit their own purposes, the neocons, with Wolfowitz in full stride, more fully developed the sinister aspects of the ‘evil’ empire of the Soviets, believing that the “Kremlin lacked the moral scruples to be trusted and possessed the technological capacity to cause incalculable damage when it cheated [on nuclear parity]”. Wolfowitz’s “messianic impulses” early on led him to identify the Persian Gulf in general and Iraq in particular as “potential grave danger…because at stake were vital oil reserves, and because the Arab-Israeli conflict presented a ready platform for mischief making” by the Soviets.
The neocons that Wolfowitz represents “resolutely held to the premise of America’s exceptionalism,” among whose attributes “was its righteousness” contrasting with not just the Soviets but much of the rest of the world who were “evil.” This good-evil dichotomy made the neocons “wary of negotiations and multilateral institutions.” This “temperament…shuns complexity, tactical adjustment, and the role of patience in geopolitical maneuverings,” creating an atmosphere wherein “the U.S. must also abandon its atavistic aversion to using force.”
Wolfowitz himself combined a self-righteousness with “an extraordinary confidence in the efficacy of American arms,” harnessing together its “unassailable moral purposes to its unassailable military might…. No one had been more instrumental in developing the conceptual framework for Bush’s global posture, and no one was more attuned to or sympathetic to the president’s agenda.” In a prime case of blowback, Wolfowitz’s desire to do away with Saddam Hussein, Wolfowitz’s “arrogance” and “hubris” “led to what may turn out to be the greatest strategic blunder in U.S. history, a blunder that could prove fatal to the empire.“
‘Promoted’ to the head of the World Bank, Wolfowitz “brought to his first meeting his reputation for arrogance, self-righteousness, ideological inflexibility, contempt for the conventional wisdom and the professionals responsible for it.” Being “in so many ways the personification of the 21st century’s “Ugly American”, he was forced to resign from that position and his career is “on hold.” For those concerned about liberty, one can only hope he stays on hold.
Obama’s hope
As with all histories, the writing creates a time lapse that makes interpretation of current events difficult if not impossible. Immerman ends his work castigating the Bush administration as “detention, torture, and rendition were systematic, orchestrated by the [CIA] with the Bush administration’s explicit approval.” Following that he looks forward to the ‘audacity of hope’ and ‘change’ that have proven to be meaningless under Obama’s leadership. While recognizing that Obama has not followed through on his rhetorical promises, he indicates that the future “may well incorporate less empire and more liberty.”
If so, it will probably be involuntary, in the face of the triad: of military ineffectiveness even with massive superiority in a technical sense; of the economic problems whose solutions are so far benefiting only those large corporations who are operating well within the structures of the empire; and of the increasing environmental problems as indicated by recent global weather events. The empire may well be less – more liberty remains highly uncertain.
Immerman’s journey through the “Empire of Liberty” strongly supports his starting theme. The United States has always held imperial ambitions. The large contradiction involved within empire places its requirements for expansion and acquisition of territory and wealth against the liberty of others at home and abroad. This is an excellent work that flows cleanly through the history of the U.S., a valuable addition to any library concerned with history, empire, and liberty.
