The War in Vietnam Dramatically Affected American Foreign Policy - Essay Example

History and Political Science The War in Vietnam Dramatically Affected American Foreign Policy The U.S government takes a central purpose of undertaking relations with other counties around the world, thereby becoming a sovereign country, and acquiring authority over territories. Conducting of various relationships by America their allies has depended significantly on foreign policy (Mehmet, 1). On the other hand, foreign policy has been formulated and reforms throughout the history with the purpose of achieving various objectives; for instance, Americans seeks assurance of security and deference through the foreign policy. On the other hand, this involves a focus on power aimed at protecting and projecting America’s national interest around the world. Nonetheless, the national interest alters foreign policy, thereby covering a significant range of political, economic, ideological and humanitarian issues. This paper will focus on supporting the notion that the Vietnam War had a dramatic impact of the American foreign policy, whereby focusing on the role of America in Vietnam, Afghanistan in the 1980s and Iraq since 2003. There was a significant increase of the focus on American foreign policy by the then president Lyndon Johnson after the conflict in Vietnam (Gallagher, 1). However, there were issues regarding statistics depicting that there were cases of racial discrimination; the foreign policy in America has undergone significant changes for a period leading to a reflection on their national interests. In fact, these changes were experienced after new revolutionary war, whereby America’s principal national interest was aimed at maintenance of independence from various countries in Europe. For instance, America has developed a significant foreign policy, which is supported by the Atlantic Ocean and typified through Monroe Doctrine. This foreign policy focuses on imposing constraints on European attempts to further colonization of the western hemisphere. Apparently, in America, formulation of these policy focuses on avoiding entanglement with other countries, thereby concentrating on development of a nation covered the continent. These foreign policies have played a significant role in facilitating the process of industrialization, which focused on the foreign markets and colonies. Moreover, America managed to attain a minor level of imperial power by the end of twentieth century through war with territories such as Spain for Cuba, and with Philippines taking over Hawaii (Mehmet, 1). On the other hand, the World War 1 involved Americans concerning European issues, though after the war, there was a form of isolation; for instance, Americans turned down the idea of joining the League of Nations, though it turned inward once again. Numerous issues and functions are taken by the foreign policy in America; for example, it focuses on establishment and maintenance of diplomatic relationships with other counties and international institutions such as United Nations (Mehmet, 1). The foreign policy has contributed in the process of maintaining peace, whereby America is able to work with their allies in a way that facilities regional and international security. On the other hand, there are wide ranges of international economic issue that entail international trade and business that are affected by a change in foreign policy. Foreign policy has facilities involvement in issue such as aid and disaster relief, whereby American takes significant role of leadership these and other issue such as negotiation of treaties and maintaining peace. Therefore, America has taken an important function that involves seeking ways to address international economic and environmental issues. There are three branches involved formulation and implementation of foreign policy in America; in fact, these branches collaborate with necessary governmental institutions and agencies. On the other hand, this process involves the president and executives branches with the ultimate role of formulating and implementing foreign policy. However, the process of foreign policy formulation may involve the Senate, whereby these parties may seek advice from them and choose them as ambassadors. Furthermore, there are cases where the president has decided to hold meeting with some world leaders such as commander in chiefs, thereby projecting American power around the world. One of the changes in the foreign policy involves deployment of American forces, which has changed since the period during the Vietnam War in 1980s (Gallagher, 1).In this case, after incidences that were followed by bombings in Afghanistan; there was a deployment of US military forces aimed at invading Iraq in 2003 (Constitutional Right Foundation, 1). However, this deployment to Iraq conformed to the concept of minimum number of American solders that were deployed based on guiding principles of US counterinsurgency strategy. Nonetheless, the invasion was aimed at preventing deployment of weapon of mass destruction and elimination of Saddam Hussain's administration in Iraq. Invasion into Iraq was due to considerations that Saddam has been a threat in the country since 1990s, and this led to establishment of an agenda to end autocrat, thereby democratizing Iraq. However, this decision was faced by opposition from different countries around the world, given that the Americans were legitimizing this issue bearing in mind that it would involve death of some civilians. Nonetheless, this has led to change in the foreign policy given that this invasion led to deaths of more than six hundred thousand people in Iraq based on findings from scientific analysis (Constitutional Right Foundation, 1). In addition, there were issues regarding presence of a weapon of mass destruction in Iraq, but the invasion by Britain and US proofed that there is no such thing that existed in Iraq. On the other hand, this has led to contention that invasion of Americans into Iraq was a way developing hegemony in Middle East and ways of achieving control on land of oil. In conclusion, the paper has covered issue regarding foreign policy in America regarding the deployment of American forces to places such as Vietnam during 1980s and Iraq in 2003. Therefore, this analysis has been focused on identifying changes on foreign policies that are influenced results of these wars. Nevertheless, the analysis leads to a conclusion that US foreign policy makers and advisers are focusing on liberal approaches, thereby facilitating development of authoritarian policy. For instance, foreign policy is aimed at safeguarding American homogeny in different places around the world, and the values of their unilateral military dealings. Moreover, this has led to the approaches towards foreign policies being compared to those that were presented during the Roman Empire due to their visionary attribute. However, there are notions that there are long-term effects of American foreign policy, which involve increased number of deaths among innocent lives. Works Cited Constitutional Right Foundation. “War and International Law America’s Foreign Policy: A Brief History”. Foreign Policy. Web 10 June 2013. < http://www.crf-usa.org/war-in-iraq/foreign-policy.html> Gallagher Brendan. “The Vietnam War and the Civil Rights movement”. Arnet. 23 May 2013. Web. 10 June 2013. Mehmet Celik. “A shift in Understanding International Relations: US Foreign Policy Post 9/11 Attacks”. Anatolia Daily. 12 Octomber 2012. Web 10 June 2013 < http://www.anatoliadaily.com/irst/index.php/main-subjects/america/1210-a-shift-in-understanding-international-relations-us-foreign-policy-post-911-attacks> Read More