When did the US become the world police?

Answer 1

The United States cannot be described as the world's police force. It would be difficult to build such a case.

What can be said about the United States is that after WW2, the USA was only major world power that did not have its own territory ravaged by the war. The USA was in position provide financial aid to many western European nations. To fight a major two front war as it did in WW2, required the build up of a large military force.

The following outline displays the fallacy of the World Police idea.

A. The allies of the USA were glad that a western ally remained a vital military force. This allowed the allies to participate in rebuilding their economies and the cost of repairing their military strength could be delayed.

B. The allies of the USA readily accepted USA aid in the form of what was called the Marshall Plan. This aid was not forced upon them.

C. The facts of world affairs make the concept of "world policeman" contained in the question is a false one often used by enemies of the USA to help reduce the positive affect the USA had in helping her allies.

D. Beginning in 1945, the USSR came to dominate eastern Europe. It was a group of nations led by the dictator of the Soviet Union, Josef Stalin. By the use of force, communist dictatorships were installed in the countries Stalin occupied after the war.

D1. From 1945 to 1949 the USA was the only nation with the power to make and deliver the atomic bomb. If the USA was a police force, the threat of using it would have deterred even Stalin to withdraw from eastern Europe.

E. No elections to create these oppressive governments were held.

Stalin himself had been the dictator of the Soviet Union from the end of the 1920's to his death in 1952.

F. The Soviet Union declared itself to be a nation with the benevolent intent of spreading its brand of "socialism" world wide.

G. The Soviet version of its "socialism" differed greatly from many of the socialists in Western Europe. Stalin had executed or sent to prison fellow communists who believed that he had hijacked Marxism to develop a cult of personality around Stalin.

H. In the latter part of the 1950's the Soviet leadership revealed to the world the horrors perpetrated by Stalin within the USSR. By the late 1950's the party leadership condemned Stalin's activities. The final judgement was seen when Stalin's body was removed form the Red Square, where Lenin and Stalin were displayed to honor them.

I. By 1949, The Peoples Republic of China was declared a communist nation.

J. For the better part of the "Cold War" over one billion people lived in communist controlled nations.

K. IF the World Police was the United States it's clear that the USSR, its communist allies in Eastern Europe and China would have never been able to establish themselves into a world force that challenged the USA & western Europe.

L. In the years during the Cold War and beyond to the present day, the United States has worked with its allies and gained their support to eliminate atrocities and threats to world security. The allies of the USA have almost always agreed and helped other nations in the world that faced terror and hardships. The USA has never considered itself a "police man". US foreign policy has always been geared to secure the safety of itself and her allies.