During the Twentieth Century, America reestablishes its cultural
and psychological ties with Europe. Three times during the Twentieth Century America is forced
to commit its wealth, manpower, and war machinery to support the nations
of Western Europe. First, in World War I against an assault by the
Prussian-Austrian-Turkish-German bloc of Central Europe; second, in World
War II against German aggression; finally, in the "Cold War" against Soviet
Union aggression. America commits both money and manpower to the
Marshal Plan to rebuild Europe after World War II. The rebuilding
includes both the victorious allies and the vanquished Germans. America
commits still more money and manpower to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
to insure the "West" remains free from communist aggression from the "East."
That effort begins when President Harry Truman commits the American reputation and American military
power to containing communism inside the Black Sea when the Soviets threaten
Turkey and Greece and threaten to increase their influence in the Mediterranean
Sea and continues even after the collapse of the Soviet Union. NATO appears destined to expand and to assume new missions rather than to wither away. In the course of these "rescues" of Western Europe, diplomatic, political,
cultural, economic, and personal ties are strengthened and the Europeans and Americans are drawn closer together.
In international confrontations involving Western European nations
confronting Second or Third World nations, the U.S. tends to side
with the Western Europeans. The United States takes a basic hands-off
approach to the liberation and independence movements in European colonies
in Africa and Asia during the 1950s and 1960s; the U.S. could intervene on the side of the nationalists
and earn some favor with the independence regimes replacing the colonial
regimes, but America does not do so.
In recent years, America inherits the French war in Vietnam and makes
the war its own. In the British confrontation with Argentina, a Latin
American nation that should receive U.S. protection under the Monroe Doctrine,
the United States not only sides with Great Britain diplomatically, but
supplies the British armed forces with military intelligence information. As the individual nations of Europe move closer together in the Common Market and, later, in the European Union, the United States develops increasingly closer ties with both the individual nations and with the European Union even if closer ties with the Second and Third World of developing nations might be of greater economic advantage. The key princliple of "non-entanglement with the nations of Europe" is in rapid decline as the United States seems more and more intent on uniting itself politically, economicly, and culturally with the developed nations of Europe. This may change, however, if the European Union becomes Euro-centric, if the Europeans fail to support U. S. anti-terrorism efforts, or if America returns to its old isolationist ways. Still, when the nations of Europe again call for help from across the Atlantic, America will surely return to European soil to once again defend the nations of Europe.
