A great deal has already been written about America’s involvement throughout the world and for that reason I am hesitant to write another article on the subject. With so much analysis around, one runs into the danger of the “paralysis of analysis” as Dr. Martin Luther King so aptly put it. Analysis without action that changes situations is fruitless; this is especially true for the Christian, for knowledge in the Biblical sense always involves ethical response, whether it is knowledge about God, or about our neighbors and enemies. There are, however, compelling reasons to take up my pen and write about the subject of the United States economic empire, or American globalism, because as C. Wright Mills once said, “When little is known, or only trivial items publicized, or when myths prevail, the plain description becomes a radical fact …” Mills’ statement accurately describes the shallow understanding Americans have about overseas economic involvement, and is particularly true of those, who like myself, come from a conservative Christian background. So in this instance, analysis is a pressing necessity, but only if it results in changes in the way we live our lives as Christians in the world, particularly as Christians living in the most powerful nation in the world.
The approach that I believe will be most valuable will be a bibliographical essay that brings out many of the facts of U.S. global domination, and points to other more lengthy and in-depth analyses that provide a more solid case for the points I wish to make. The books mentioned are ones that I would recommend, and all are easily available in paperback. After a general introduction, I will divide the essay into three parts: the Economic Foundations of the American empire, the Governmental Policy that supports the empire, and the Consequences for the Third World of the operations of the empire. While I will analytically separate these aspects, they can only be understood as an integrated whole.
General Introduction
American globalism can only be understood if America’s involvement throughout the world is seen as an interrelated economic, diplomatic and military empire. Many Americans cringe at the word empire, but it is the most appropriate description of the hegemony our nation has established over the “free world.” The American empire is certainly not the classical empire of direct government control of colonies, but rather an economic empire where the control is normally exercised by dominating the economies of the countries under imperial control. One book, more than any other I have seen, sets out the way this empire has come into being and how it presently functions—America’s Empire by Claude Julien (Vintage, 1973). Julien as Foreign Editor of Le Monde in Paris, enjoys the perspective of an outsider in writing about American affairs. Often this allows for a clearer perspective, but there is no shortage of good works written from Americans on the inside of the imperial metropolis, as the works to which I shall refer clearly show. Julien traces the history of overseas expansionism from the earliest days of our nation through the end of World War II. He then lays out the present day workings of the empire through its economic, cultural, and military apparatus, and associated agencies such as the CIA. Julien’s book serves, in my opinion, as the best overall introduction to the American empire, because it does such a good job of combining history, the present operations of the empire, and cogent explanations of why and how the economic empire has arisen. His documentation consists of statistical facts and figures, mostly from U.S. Government sources, and of case studies of American involvement in countries throughout the Third World, especially Latin American interventions. I find such a combination of facts, figures and case studies to be the best way to understand U.S. involvement overseas.
I shall use facts and figures from Julien throughout this essay to illustrate points that can be followed up in detail in the works I shall cite; Joe Roos’ article on Chile in this issue of the Post-American is a good example of the case study which many of these authors use in their books. I find Julien’s use of repetition helpful; for instance, the way the United States has intervened in Guatemala throughout this century is described in several different places, bringing out different aspects of American domination of that “republic.” Although America’s Empire is a substantial book (420 pages), it is well written and the translation is exceptionally smooth.
There are four other books that I consider especially valuable for a general introduction to understanding the American empire. William Appleman Williams’ The Tragedy of American Diplomacy (Delta, 1962) is the classical analysis of expansionism as an ideology and activity through American history. Williams sees the imperial overseas expansion as the extension of the frontier expansion of the Nineteenth Century—the overseas extension of Frederick Jackson Turner’s Frontier Thesis. Williams shows how expansion and growth have become an ideology, and how business and government have put this ideology into practice throughout the world. Expansionist activity is understood to be crucial for the survival of the nation and our “way of life”, and national leaders have consistently acted upon this assumption. Gabriel Kolko’s The Roots of American Foreign Policy (Beacon, 1969) is probably the best introductory analysis of the link between U.S. corporate interests at home and abroad, and the way these interests affect government policy overseas. The book is shorter, and in some ways, the analysis of the present workings of the empire is more comprehensive than Julien’s; I feel that the only drawback is that it is not as smoothly written as some of the other works. Still, it is well worth any difficulty in reading for the sake of the depth and breadth of Kolko’s analysis. Carl Oglesby’s lengthy essay (176 pages) “Vietnam Crucible” in Containment and Change (written with Richard Shaull, Macmillan, 1967) provides what I believe is the best analysis of the logical consequences of the containment of communism and economic expansionism in the Cold War. Whereas Williams’ Tragedy concentrates on the history of the ideology and activity of expansionism, and Kolko’s Roots focuses on the interworkings of the economic aspects of the empire; Richard Barnet’s Roots of War (Pelican, 1973) examines the institutions of American society that are the sociological causes of the permanent war economy and the global interventions by our government’s military and paramilitary organizations. Barnet scrutinizes the national security bureaucracy, the political economy of expansionism, and the place the citizenry plays in the establishment of foreign policy. Any of these four provide a sound introduction to globalism; together with Julien, they provide a strong analysis of most of the issues confronting those concerned with analysing globalism for the sake of action.
The Economic Foundations of the Empire
Economics is at the foundation of the American empire, though economics alone is not sufficient to explain all the intricacies of the global system. I find it convenient to analytically divide the economics of domination into three aspects: the ideology and the actions of expansionism, the increasing concentration of wealth and power, and the men who wield the power.
Williams’ Tragedy of American Diplomacy describes in detail why the leading men of America have considered it necessary to expand overseas. Business operations outside frontiers of any nation fall under the categories of access to markets, access to raw materials or access to profitable investment opportunity. Around the turn of the century, the primary consideration of business leaders was export markets that could absorb the surplus of American manufacturers. Subsequent events have shown that these leaders had an inadequate understanding of the dynamics of markets at home and abroad. Many would point to the fact that the United States exports only five per cent of its GNP to show that our business activity is not dependent to any large degree on export markets for its prosperity; this small figure is contrasted with those of nations like Belgium, which exports 37% of its GNP, Canada, 21%, West Germany, 20%, etc. (Julien, p. 228). These statistics are misleading if examined alone, as Julien points out, because they overlook the dependence of key sectors of American manufacturing on overseas outlets. Each of the following sectors exports over 15% of its annual production and each has a dollar volume of over 10 million in exports: cotton, tobacco, molybdenum, phosphates, synthetic rubber, construction and mining equipment, machine tools, electronic computers and calculators, office machines, surgical implements, and aircraft (1968 figures, Julien, p. 228). In all, 16 categories of key industries export over 1/3 of total exports, amounting to over 13 billion dollars yearly. If export markets are vital to the healthy operation of certain key sectors of the U.S. economy, the standard of living of the whole society depends entirely on access to raw materials. Only a few years ago the North American continent was rich enough in mineral resources to import only those minerals not found here. Now, however, the situation has drastically changed. The United States must import considerable proportions of all the major minerals on which its industrial capacity depends. The United States imports the following percentages of materials that it consumes yearly: chrome, 100%; manganese, 99%; nickel, 88%; bauxite (aluminum), 69%; asbestos, 84%; tin, 72%; zinc, 52%; iron ore and lead, 33%; potash, 45%; tungsten, 25%; copper, 14%. In terms of the production of the rest of the world, the 6% of the global population living in the United States consumes annually 33% of the chrome, 32% of the tin, 30% of the bauxite, 26% of the nickel, 25% of the tungsten, asbestos and copper, 14% of the iron and lead, and 13% of the manganese. Someone described the results this way: “It has been estimated that if everyone in the world were to rise to the level of living of those in the United States, we would then have to extract about 20 billion tons of iron, 300 million tons of copper, 300 million tons of lead, and 200 million tons of zinc. These totals are well over a hundred times the world’s present annual rate of production.” This must sound to many like a Marxist economist. Actually it was Lyndon Baines Johnson! (Julien, p. 230). Statements such as this show that our nation’s leaders are well aware of the consequences for the rest of the world of the levels of consumption that American prosperity is predicated upon.
The third aspect of the economic foundation of the economic empire is that of outlets for profitable investment. Wealth and power have increasingly become concentrated in the hands of a few giant firms. Domestic investment has not provided sufficient opportunity for corporations to redeploy their profits at rates of return that they find acceptable. For instance, by 1960, eighty of the top largest corporations reported profits on foreign operations that were 30 per cent higher than profits on domestic operations.
A number of books are especially valuable in gaining a perspective on the place of markets, raw materials, and investments in foreign operations of American business. Julien’s chapter “The Economic Empire” is a good place to start. Kolko’s chapter in Roots, “The United States and World Economic Power,” is an even more detailed and refined analysis. Barnet’s chapter in his Roots, “The American Business Creed and the National Interest” brings out the practices of expansionism; his chapter “Changing Patterns of Imperialism: Captialism, Expansionism, and War” provides a useful examination of some of the classical theories of imperialism, particularly those of the Marxist-Leninists. Harry Magdoff devotes his The Age of Imperialism: The Economics of U.S. Foreign Policy (Modern Reader, 1969) to a treatment of this whole area. It is probably the best work available that deals exclusively with this subject. There are a number of excellent essays on this aspect of the empire in the work Readings in U.S. Imperialism (Porter Sargent, 1971) edited by K.T. Faun and Donald Hodges.
One cannot have an adequate understanding of the overseas involvement of United States business unless there is some sort of picture of the concentration of wealth and power at home. Julien touches on this in his book. Two others that provide introductory perspectives are The Populist Manifesto, by Jack Newfield and Jeff Greenfield (Warner Paperback Library, 1972) and Up Against The American Myth, edited by Christoffel, Finikelhor, and Gilbarg (Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1970).
It is sometimes easy to lose sight of individual responsibility when reading analyses of the operations of the United States on the world, and those of individual businesses operating at home and abroad. However, in back of the corporate and governmental empire lie people—mostly men—of great power. C. Wright Mills’ classical The Power Elite (Oxford, 1956) provides the starting point for much of the valuable analysis that is available today, though the best understandings do not follow him at all points. Perhaps the most comprehensive view of the men of power, their backgrounds, present associations and activities is found in G. William Domhoff’s Higher Circles (Vintage, 1970). Domhoff examines in detail the way the corporate elite have dominated the formulation and execution of domestic and foreign policy, and how they have had a crucial hand in the running of the CIA. Kolko has an excellent analysis of the interplay between big government and big business in his chapters on “The Men Of Power” and “The American Military and Civil Authority.” Barnet devotes a whole section in Roots of War to a study of “The Bureaucratic Revolution and Its Consequences.” Barnet goes into more detail about the inner workings of the various aspects of the national security bureaucracy than do Domhoff and Kolko. He looks at the national security managers, their backgrounds, and especially their shared values. These three treatments together show the vital connection between the corporate elite and the policies our government has actively pursued, especially since the advent of the Cold War.
Government policy supporting the economic hegemony
In the Twentieth Century, the United States government has consistently followed a policy of directly intervening in the affairs of other sovereign states. The methods and scope, and rationales for involvement have changed since the end of the Second World War, but the fact of intervention has remained constant. Julien does a superb job of tracing American military interventions in Latin America prior to World War II, interventions whose purpose was to insure stable conditions for the operation of American business interests. Since World War II, interventions have taken place on a global scale, and usually in more subtle forms than the landing of the Marines. These interventions since the Second World War have been integrally wrapped up in the Cold War and the policy of containment of communism. American foreign policy in the Cold War has intimately tied the fortunes of the smaller countries throughout the world to the ideological conflict of the “super powers.” The policy of the U.S. government is ideologically founded on an anti-communist obsession. This is always the rationale given for the necessity of intervention. It is therefore necessary to understand something of the origins of this obsession.
The menace of communism is one of the myths hanging over from the days of the Cold War. The myth usually makes the assertion that the communists seek total domination of the world, and expect to attain this objective through military conquest. There is certainly a legitimate strong revulsion to the horrors Stalin and others have perpetuated in the name of socialism. However, the idea that the communists seek world domination through military conquest is one myth that is best relegated to the ideological graveyard of the Cold War. The careful reexaminations of the historical records over the past few years have led to the inescapable conclusion that the United States was largely to blame for the onset of the Cold War, through a misreading of Soviet intentions, and that obstinate commitment to pursuit of certain economic goals in Europe led to head-on confrontation with the Russians. Gabriel and Joyce Kolko have written the best descriptions available of these struggles, in Politics of War (Vintage, 1968) describing the period 1943-1945 and Limits 0f Power (Harper and Row, 1972), covering 1945-1953. Oglesby provides a shorter, but excellent analysis of the Cold War and the results for the Third World in Containment and Change. Williams in his Tragedy of American Diplomacy shows the links between the ideological conflict and the continuing expansionist influence of the corporate community. David Horowitz has gathered what is the best collection of essays on the subject in Corporations and the Cold War (Modern Reader, 1969). The best of the historians writing on the Cold War are brought together there. John Swomley, in American Empire (Macmillan, 1970), brings one Christian ethical perspective to bear on the questions raised by American activity in the Cold War. His analysis is penetrating, and he has damning things to say about the school of “Christian realism” represented by Reinhold Niebuhr and others. However, I do not feel he has done an adequate job in understanding the relations between the personal and corporate aspects of liberation, particularly how salvation and the saving work of Christ fit into the picture of human liberation. In spite of this defect, he raises important questions, and the book provides an excellent historical framework for understanding past-war American policy—an area in which Julien’s America’s Empire is notably deficient.
If American policy in Europe was to prevent the communist take-over of Western Europe, the policy throughout the rest of the world was to prevent the communist take-over of governments vital to United States economic interests. While Western Europe was largely rebuilt with American funds, and capitalism and democracy thus saved, the Third World experience has shown that any government will be tolerated as long as it is anti-communist—in the sense of allowing free access to United States corporate interests. Application of the American principles of democracy and free enterprise means in fact free enterprise for the American Corporate giants, and an increasing number of dictatorships supported by our government. Julien’s section on “The Empire Today” gives an excellent picture of these results. Oglesby provides an even more astute analytical perspective on the inter-relations between policy directed against the Soviet Union and results for the Third World. Swomley provides more of a chronological perspective in this area than do Julien or Oglesby.
An integral part of government policy is the military policy. While direct military intervention has been less of a technique in the Cold War period, military influence on policy is more dominant than ever before because of the size of the military machine, its integral tie to major corporate interests, and its all pervasive presence throughout the “free world.” Julien’s chapter on “The Military Empire” is good. Barnet’s chapter “The Government-Business Partnership in Foreign Affairs” shows the necessity of the military establishment for the healthy functioning of the economy of this country as it is presently structured. These analyses show that while the assistance to the “underdeveloped” countries is the rhetoric of policy in the Third World, the actual practice is the universal military presence that insures the safety of the corporate enterprise.
Consequences of business and government policy for the people of the Third World
John Kennedy came into office talking about his desire to see the gap between the rich and poor nations of the world closed. This is the stated purpose of foreign aid programs. If one were to believe the spokesmen of government and industry, the effects of governmental aid and business involvement work to the mutual benefit of both Americans and those countries in which American interests operate. The benefits to the countries and peoples of the Third World are another myth. In fact, the gap between the rich nations and the poor nations is increasing. This is directly caused by the economic policies of the rich nations, and most particularly those of the United States. It is at this point that the ethical consequences most directly bear on the individual Christian in America, because our standard of living is maintained at the expense of the people of the Third World. As Julien says, America has become “… a society which has confused the right to the pursuit of happiness with the right to the pursuit of material comfort acquired at the cost of impoverishing others.” (p. 407). The way the gap is increasing is clearly shown by a few facts and figures on the volume of American investments in countries of the Third World, and the profits that these corporations have repatriated.
INVESTMENTS BY AREA OF ACTIVITY
Billions of dollars
Year …………………………1961………1969…% inc
Mines…………………………3.1…………5.6………84
Petroleum…………………12.2………20.0………64
Industry/commerce…19.5………45.1………132
PROFITS BY AREA OF ACTIVITY
Millions of dollars
Year…………………………1961…………………1969
Mines…………………………296…………………664
Petroleum………………1,303…………………2,635
Industry/commerce…1,074…………………2,339
The extractive industries are primarily located in the Third World, while the industry and commerce sectors are to a large degree located in the more “developed” countries. Julien brought out the implications of the above figures for the Third World when he said, “Thus, in 1969, $20 billion invested in petroleum brought in as much as $45 billion invested in manufacturing industries and commerce.” (The figures and quotes are from page 232.)
The figures clearly show the great profitability of investments in the Third World for American corporations. Julien says, “To put it another way, the high income from capital invested in underdeveloped regions (Latin America, the Middle East, Africa) provides the United States with the lion’s share of the capital it needs in order to invest heavily in the prosperous industrialized countries (Western Europe, Canada, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand)” (p. 236).
Here are the comparative figures for new investments and profits (in millions of dollars) in major areas of the world between 1959 and 1969:
Europe Canada
New Investments………………………16,231………10,896
Profits…………………………………………7,318…………6,162
Investments exceeded profits by…8,913 ………4,734
Contributions of capital in industrialized countries (by the U.S.): 3,647
Latin Middle
Africa America East
New Investments……………………1,576…………3,547…………690
Profits………………………………………2,529…………9,397………8,996
Profits exceeded investment by…953…………5,850………8,306
Profits repatriated from the Third World……………………15,109
(Julien, p. 232)
It is obvious from these figures that there is a net capital outflow from the countries of the Third World as a result of investments by American corporations. Most of the aid supplied goes in fact to American corporations, rather than being spent in the countries that receive the funds. Even when foreign aid is taken into account, there is still a net capital flow to the United States from the Third World. In addition, most of foreign aid is now in the form of loans, which must be repaid. Many smaller nations are now using 20 to 30 per cent of their foreign exchange earnings to repay loans. With the situation like this, it is no small wonder that the gap between the rich and the poor of the world continues to increase.
Julien’s treatment of this aspect of the economic empire is excellent. The sections Barnet and Kolko devote to this in their respective Roots are also very good.
A second major consequence of American involvement in the Third World has been the consistent support of dictatorships. Domination by elites, whether military or civilian, is one of the characteristics of the client states of the American empire. Julien, Oglesby and Swomley make this abundantly clear.
A third characteristic, intimately linked to the second, is suppression of revolutionary, or merely progressive, movements. This is where American rhetoric is most blatantly contradictory, for while democracy is spoken of, police state tactics are not only tolerated, but actively supported. Suppression of progressive movements is not confined to the government’s operations alone. For instance, when Bolivia nationalized its properties in 1969, Gulf Oil retaliated by demanding imposition of the Hichenlooper Amendment, which would cut off foreign aid if just compensation were not coming. Gulf threatened an embargo on Bolivia’s oil, discontinued tanker operations which prevented Bolivian oil from getting to world markets, put pressure on another American construction company to cease work on an international natural gas pipeline, and withdrew support it had given for a World Bank loan that financed the pipeline project which resulted in funds being cut off. Bolivia was forced to back down from its nationalization, and relinquish effective control over its natural resources to a Spanish firm in which Gulf had interests.
More often used is a combination of business and government pressure. Julien shows how this operates very clearly in “The Economic Empire,” as does Oglesby in his chapter “Free World Empire.” Swomley gives another good account.
Diplomatic-economic pressure is often insufficient to gain corporate-governmental objectives, and then direct application of armed force is used. This was once done with U.S. troops, but now the force is normally applied by the police and military of our client states against their fellow citizens. The CIA is normally the intermediate agent, but as Costa-Gavras’ superb film, State of Seige, shows, agencies like the Agency for International Development have a. direct hand in supporting police state activities. Barnet’s Intervention and Revolution (Mentor, 1972) shows the historical pattern of interventions and assistance in military coups. Julien, with “In Service of the Empire: The CIA,” and Oglesby and Swomley give adequate introductions to how the empire insures the stability of Third World states for the sake of “the national interest.”
When economic-diplomatic pressure and paramilitary intervention fail, there is always the military empire as the backup. Of course, the Indochina War is the most telling example of how far our national leaders are willing to go to make the world safe from communism and other menaces to U.S. domination. One must not forget Korea, the Dominican Republic, and the other countries to which smaller numbers of troops have been sent. Julien’s ‘The Military Empire” is again a good starting point. Swomley is good from a historical perspective. Barnet’s Roots again shows how waging war against other nations stems from domestic institutions. Oglesby does a particularly good job of integrating the Vietnam conflict with the way the United States has involved itself throughout the world in the Cold War. Kolko in Roots provides a good historical introduction to the Vietnam War. The best single treatment of Vietnam is provided by Kahin and Lewis in The United States In Vietnam (Delia, 1969). Unfortunately it only carries its history through May 1969. The best single introduction to the whole Indochina War is The Indochina Story, by the Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars (Bantam, 1970). It is also limited by covering events only through 1970. One other book is vital for understanding the shape of American interventions throughout the world. Michael Kalre’s War Without End shows that the sophisticated techniques developed for counterinsurgency in Indochina have become a permanent part of the arsenal, to be used for the suppression of threats both in countries of the Third World, and to preserve order on the domestic scene.
Once again, we come to the point of how we are to respond. I do not plan to try to lay out all the demands of Christian discipleship in the face of the consequences for the people in the Third World. But if we are to love our neighbor, and if our neighbor includes those who are oppressed because of American policies that maintain our standard of living, then two things follow as minimal preconditions of knowing how we should respond in faith. One is developing a basic understanding of how U.S. policy operates in the Third World—acquisition of an interpretive scheme into which new facts can be placed. This is the purpose of this essay—pointing to those books which can provide such an understanding.
The second precondition for response in faith is developing a continuing awareness of what is happening in the world. Unfortunately, in the United States, we are largely dependent on established media sources for our information. The picture is almost always distorted, even in the best sources. And the New York Times is by far the best established American source for what is going on in the rest of the world. With the Times, the factual information is often present. In fact, Kahin said that the factual material for The United States In Vietnam could be found in the Times, The Washington Post, and Le Monde from Paris. What is most often lacking is an interpretation that is consistent with the acts of the dominance of the American empire. This individuals have to develop for themselves, and then read established sources with caution.
There is another source for information about what is happening in the Third World. A number of excellent research action groups are studying in detail American involvement in the Third World. While the information is not as up to date as the daily newspaper, the analysis and perspective that is obtainable through these groups and their regular newsletters and publications is the best source available for understanding what is presently happening in the Third World. Here are some of the groups, their addresses, and publications.
1. The Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars (9 Suffer St., San Francisco, California 94104) publishes the Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars and other Asian studies.
2. The African Research Group (P.O. Box 213, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138) publishes a series of research studies on Western colonialism in contemporary Africa.
3. The North American Congress on Lath America (NALCA, Box 226, Berkeley, California 94701) publishes the NACLA Newsletter and studies on U.S. imperialism in Latin America and elsewhere.
4. The National Action-Research on the Military-Industrial Complex (NARMIC, 160 N. 15th St., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19102) publishes research studies, popular handbooks on the military and organizing literature on antimilitaristic activities.
5. Pacific Studies Center (1963 University Avenue, East Palo Alto, California 94303) publishes the Pacific Research and World Empire Telegram and other studies on imperialism in the Pacific Basin area.
6. The Indochina Resource Center (1322 18th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20036) publishes up-dated information on American presence in Indochina. This is especially important as explicit intervention decreases and hidden involvement increases in the post-war period.
I can only conclude by urging you to begin reading and thinking about this area of discipleship. Awareness of the consequences of American involvement in the world is a radical fact, and opens up whole new areas of responsibility to the claims of Christ that many of us never dreamed of only a short while ago. As with Karl Barth, we must read our Bibles in one hand and our newspapers in the other, praying for the illumination of the Holy Spirit so that we may understand and have the strength to respond as we should.
Boyd Reese was the Book Review Editor of the Post American when this article appeared.
