The Ambivalent Superpower

Politico Magazine ^ | 2/28/14 | Robert Kagan

[DoodleDawg]

The world never really loved America as much as Americans like to think. In the Eisenhower era, to take one period now seen in rosy hues, Latin mobs pelted Vice President Richard Nixon’s motorcade with stones, shouting, “Out, dog! We won’t forget Guatemala!” Angry Japanese students protested American “imperialism,” forcing President Dwight Eisenhower to cancel a “goodwill” visit to Tokyo, and Ike spent his days wishing he could find a way to get people in other countries “to like us instead of hating us.” In the late 1960s and again in the 1980s, young Europeans took to the streets by the millions to protest American foreign policy. Even in the 1990s, with Bill Clinton and Al Gore in office, the French foreign minister decried the American “hyperpower,” while leading intellectual Samuel P. Huntington wrote of a “lonely superpower,” widely hated across the globe for its “intrusive, interventionist, exploitative, unilateralist, hegemonic, hypocritical” behavior.

Yet always there was the other aspect of the United States, the one most valued if least spoken about. This was the America that others counted on, for security against threatening neighbors, as the defender of the oceans and the world’s trade routes, as the keeper of the global balance, as the guarantor of an economic and political order whose benefits were widely enjoyed. This was the America whose troops were invited into Europe as protection against both a resurgent Germany and the Soviets in the late 1940s. This was the America whose president Helmut Kohl, François Mitterrand and Margaret Thatcher looked to for trans-Atlantic solidarity, and to whom Polish workers and Soviet dissidents turned for hope and inspiration. This was the America that, for all its undeniable flaws, became indispensable after World War II and whose departure from the scene was usually more feared than its presence

[DoodleDawg]

I especially like this quote from the article on what countries think of China taking our place:

Others are even more skeptical that the Chinese are likely to take on global burdens if America’s ability to do so fades. As a former high-level Brazilian official put it, “Up until now, China is like a very rich person who goes to the restaurant, asks for a very big table and, when it comes to paying the bill, always goes to the toilet—it doesn’t pay.”

[DJ Taylor]

"The world never really loved America as much as Americans like to think. In the Eisenhower era, to take one period now seen in rosy hues, Latin mobs pelted Vice President Richard Nixon’s motorcade with stones, shouting, “Out, dog! We won’t forget Guatemala!” Angry Japanese students protested American “imperialism,” forcing President Dwight Eisenhower to cancel a “goodwill” visit to Tokyo, and Ike spent his days wishing he could find a way to get people in other countries “to like us instead of hating us.” In the late 1960s and again in the 1980s, young Europeans took to the streets by the millions to protest American foreign policy. Even in the 1990s, with Bill Clinton and Al Gore in office, the French foreign minister decried the American “hyperpower,” while leading intellectual Samuel P. Huntington wrote of a “lonely superpower,” widely hated across the globe for its “intrusive, interventionist, exploitative, unilateralist, hegemonic, hypocritical” behavior."

I find it curious that this writer doesn't seem to realize or understand that these anti-American demonstrations were inspired and carried out by Communist revolutionary movements within these countries.

[Arm_Bears]

My tendencies at this point are isolationist.

The US has underwritten, policed, cleaned-up, and otherwise babysat the rest of the world since the early 1900’s. All we have to show for it is a net loss of our time, talent, and treasure; coupled with the enmity of countries that are not fit to shine our shoes.

Screw ‘em all, say I.

[Fiji Hill]

In the Eisenhower era, to take one period now seen in rosy hues, Latin mobs pelted Vice President Richard Nixon’s motorcade with stones, shouting, “Out, dog! We won’t forget Guatemala!” Angry Japanese students protested American “imperialism,” forcing President Dwight Eisenhower to cancel a “goodwill” visit to Tokyo..

Just because mobs incited by Communists staged protests and riots against us doesn't necessarily meant that everyone shares their view.

Ike spent his days wishing he could find a way to get people in other countries “to like us instead of hating us.”

He shouldn't have worried about that. I don't give a Teton dam about whether or not we are loved around the world as long as we are respected.

[DoodleDawg]

Screw ‘em all, say I.

You, me, and a whole lot of the rest of the country. And that's what has the rest of the world peeing themselves.

[rockinqsranch]

“I find it curious that this writer doesn’t seem to realize or understand that these anti-American demonstrations were inspired and carried out by Communist revolutionary movements within these countries.”

Precisely, but the publisher IS Politico which is quite of leftist bent.

[untenured]

1. Be the world policeman. 2. Continue the modern entitlement state. Continue the current regime of crony capitalism and an anti-growth tax system.

Choose any two.

[ExSoldier]

This goes all the way back to the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt who famously quoted: "The world will never love us. They may fear us, but they will never love the United States of America." At least I think that's a quote. Or I could have heard that in a movie reference. In any case I think it's an accurate observation.

[ExSoldier]

My tendencies at this point are isolationist.

Agreed. At this point I think that every dime we currently send overseas by way of "foreign aid" should be cancelled and the money poured into job programs or border security upgrades, here at home. Most of the charity we throw away overseas goes to people who not only hate our guts but gleefully take our money and funnel it to terrorist groups that seek our total destruction.

Screw ‘em all, say I.

Yup, that sums it up nicely.

[4rcane]

The world media are leftist and they regularly write negative news about USA esp when GOP is in power. You see protests during GOP president visit to other countries, but you rarely see it for DEM GOP

[DJ MacWoW]

It's February 28th

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[Vigilanteman]

Yep. I lived in Japan for 15 years. The only time I ever felt like there was a target on my back is if I wandered into the few anti-foreigner establishments at the wrong time.

And, even then, it was much more subdued that I would feel wearing a T-Shirt with an American flag on it in your average southern California high school.

For 99% of the Japanese, the reception I got was somewhere between indifferent and friendly.

[Rinnwald]

Time to close Uncle Sugar’s checkbook.

World, how d’ya like me now?