America’s foreign policy since 1945 has evolved from containing Communism in the post-war period, to looking to Russia and China as partners in maintaining a world safe from terror and nuclear war. During this evolution, each administration addressed problems without concern for successors, and at times without regard for policies established by predecessors. Each administration brought to the Oval Office, the goals of its political party, an awareness of public opinion, and the president’s own agenda.

Throughout this period, America often compromised her moral image of being the “Citty upon a hill.” The resurrection of old powers such as China, the recovery of the Soviet Union from near destruction during the Great War, an Arab world demanding recognition as a world player,  European enlargement through NATO and the European Union, have all forced Washington at various times to compromise her values, and sacrifice morality for world dominance. She was willing to overthrow legitimate leftist governments, and to orchestrate the assassination of  troublesome heads of state including Trujillo in the Dominican Republic, Allende in Chile,  Diem in Vietnam,  Lumumba in the Congo, and a failed attempt on Castro in Cuba. Her actions in Vietnam defy morality, from the deadly defoliant Agent Orange, to blanket bombing of cities, to the slaughter of civilians who harbored VC guerillas; all of this done in the name of preventing a “domino” progression of Communism. Her indifference to Muslim beliefs permitted her to humiliate prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison, and to arrest and imprison others without trial. She redefined the definition of prisoners-of-war, thereby prohibiting them from receiving the protection of the Geneva Convention. The list goes on, but in spite of her indiscretions, the world continues to look to America for leadership. In the 1990s, a new image emerged from the White House, America was the “indispensable nation” needed to maintain world order. When Obama arrived in the White House he wanted to alter that image, but much of the world had become accustomed to Washington’s oversight, and saw no other nation capable of being the world’s policeman. While Washington might be “conflicted” in trying to live up to her moral image, she is still the “go to guy” when world order is threatened.