An Introduction to the American Age
Imagine that you were alive in the summer of 1900, living in London,
then the capital of the world. Europe ruled the Eastern Hemisphere.
There was hardly a place that, if not ruled directly, was not indirectly
controlled from a European capital. Europe was at peace and enjoying unprecedented
prosperity. Indeed, European interdependence due to trade
and investment was so great that serious people were claiming that war had
become impossible—and if not impossible, would end within weeks of beginning—
because global financial markets couldn't withstand the strain.
The future seemed fixed: a peaceful, prosperous Europe would rule the
world.
Imagine yourself now in the summer of 1920. Europe had been torn apart
by an agonizing war. The continent was in tatters. The Austro- Hun gar ian,
Russian, German, and Ottoman empires were gone and millions had died
in a war that lasted for years. The war ended when an American army of a
million men intervened—an army that came and then just as quickly left.
Communism dominated Russia, but it was not clear that it could survive.
Countries that had been on the periphery of European power, like the
United States and Japan, suddenly emerged as great powers. But one thing was certain—the peace treaty that had been imposed on Germany guaranteed
that it would not soon reemerge.
Imagine the summer of 1940. Germany had not only reemerged but
conquered France and dominated Europe. Communism had survived and
the Soviet Union now was allied with Nazi Germany. Great Britain alone
stood against Germany, and from the point of view of most reasonable people,
the war was over. If there was not to be a thousand- year Reich, then certainly
Europe's fate had been decided for a century. Germany would
dominate Europe and inherit its empire.
Imagine now the summer of 1960. Germany had been crushed in the
war, defeated less than five years later. Europe was occupied, split down the
middle by the United States and the Soviet Union. The European empires
were collapsing, and the United States and Soviet Union were competing
over who would be their heir. The United States had the Soviet Union
surrounded and, with an overwhelming arsenal of nuclear weapons, could
annihilate it in hours. The United States had emerged as the global superpower.
It dominated all of the world's oceans, and with its nuclear force
could dictate terms to anyone in the world. Stalemate was the best the Soviets
could hope for—unless the Soviets invaded Germany and conquered
Europe. That was the war everyone was preparing for. And in the back
of everyone's mind, the Maoist Chinese, seen as fanatical, were the other
danger.
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