Does American Foreign Policy Entail Frequent Wars?

Abstract

In the past, the United States has exhibited a lack of creative realism and instead has relied on mythology in the determination of its foreign policy. Single-mindedly, we have sought to foster a bipolar detente between the United States and Russia, and in the process we have eroded away the very security which the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was designed to protect. As a consequence, European countries feel they must seek an individual nuclear defensive capability outside the framework of NATO as France has done, or, in the alternative, consider making their own political accommodation with the Soviet Union without the aid of a unified front. Our policy of bipolar detente does not contribute to the security of Europe or the world, or lessen the likelihood of war. Neither did it prevent the August invasion of Czechoslovakia. Lack of realism in our dealings with Russia is matched only by the mythology which governs our policy toward China. Despite bellicose language, the present military danger from China to the United States is minimal, and political disagreement exists only over the island of Formosa. The same cannot be said for Russia where the military danger is far greater and the disagreements more numerous. The United States should attempt to treat China on the same basis as the Soviet Union. Attempts to normalize relations with China and with Eastern Europe, the re-establishment of proper priorities for Western European interests, and the rejection of our Soviet and Chinese mythology will go far toward reducing the possibility of frequent wars.