How America Got It Right: The U.S. March to Military and Political Supremacy
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Left-wing critics—both at home and abroad—relish blasting our country for being the world’s sole superpower, or even an “imperialist” power.
But as acclaimed military historian Bevin Alexander shows in How America Got It Right, these criticisms are completely off the mark. Alexander reveals how the United States has done and continues to do exactly the right thing in military and foreign affairs. As the world’s dominant political force and military power, he says, we are the only nation that will actually go into the world and strike down evil. And we must not shirk that responsibility—especially because we cannot rely on our so-called allies to defend our freedoms.
Alexander tells the dramatic and sometimes surprising story of how, from the American Revolution to the War on Terror, America’s core principles and ideals have shaped our march to economic, military, and political supremacy.
- Introduction
- Low Brainpower Cost Britain Its Colonies
- Saratoga Guarantees American Independence
- Trade Rivalry Was the Cause of World War I
- The Zimmermann Telegram
- The Locust Years
- The Missile Crisis Shows the Soviet Union Must Die
- Containment of the Soviet Union
- Removing Saddam Was Right
- We Must Limit Occupations of Rogue States
- Extreme Left Like Neville Chamberlain
- The United States Must Not Give Up
- Index
Introduction: Getting It Right
We have made the right decisions in the vast majority of cases throughout our history, and are doing the same today in the war on terror.
Chapter 1: The Illimitable Frontier
The freedom that the frontier offered guaranteed that Americans would be free, and inspired our decision to create the greatest nation ever to arise on earth.
Chapter 2: Napoleon on the Mississippi
Napoleon wanted to stop American expansion by getting Spain to cede Louisiana. Jefferson thwarted the effort. We renounced an empire and resolved to build a single nation that included everyone as citizens.
Chapter 3: ’Cross the Wide Missouri
The movement of settlers into the west shaped the nation, cemented everyone together, created a common idiom, and unified us into a single culture.
Chapter 4: Leave This Continent to Us
American leaders resolved from the outset to prevent the British or any other European empire from sharing power with us in the Western Hemisphere.
Chapter 5: Manifest Destiny
We were determined to push both Mexico and Britain out of the way to create a continental-sized nation stretching from Atlantic to Pacific. Description of this successful enterprise.
Chapter 6: Out of the Darkness
The Civil War was the worst period in American history. It could have been avoided. But we emerged from it vastly stronger and with doctrines that would guarantee devastating military supremacy in the times ahead.
Chapter 7: Imperial Interlude
Americans were reluctant to become a world power, but naval strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan showed us we must do so to prevent aggression in our hemisphere. Our decisions to annex the Philippines, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico were right, as was our resolve to build the Panama Canal.
Chapter 8: War and Isolation
When Germany threatened us directly by seeking an alliance with Mexico and Japan, we went into World War I to smash its power. We tried to return to isolation, but were unable to do so.
Chapter 9: A World Navy
The European empires were greatly weakened by World War I, especially Britain. At the Washington Naval Conference 1921-22, we took over Britain’s hegemonic role and the duty to stop aggressors in the future.
Chapter 10: The Locust Years
The greatest period of willful blindness in American history. We refused to stop the Japanese militarists, Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, and reaped the consequences of the world’s worst war.
Chapter 11: Military Supremacy
The collapse of France in 1940 showed us we must take up our duty to protect the world. We did so, producing military power unmatched in world history. Our supremacy has grown exponentially and now is greater than the rest of the world combined.
Chapter 12: Cold Harbor
Around the containment policy of George F. Kennan, President Truman forged a system to deter further Soviet aggression and keep the remainder of the world free. In Korea, the U.S. smashed the first overt aggression, and frightened the Communists into never trying it again.
Chapter 13: Dominos, Rockets, and Cuba
President Eisenhower deflected John Foster Dulles’s efforts at atomic war with China. He and later presidents threw the Soviets into a hopeless race to compete with American technology. President Kennedy faced down the Soviets in Cuba and stopped the closest threat to nuclear war.
Chapter 14: The Soviets Fall
America’s containment policy worked. The Soviets spent a vast part of their economic effort trying to match American weaponry and failed, leaving the Soviet people unable even to feed themselves. The Berlin Wall fell and so did the Soviet empire.
Chapter 15: The Terrorists Rise
The failure of Islam to compete economically led to fundamentalists seeking to reject Western civilization and create a rigid Islamic dictatorship. Facing great opposition, they turned to terror.
Chapter 16: Genocide in the Balkans
An aberrant effort by the Serbs to create a greater state led to official policies to kill Muslims. Europe responded abysmally, forcing the United States to act at last.
Chapter 17: With Us or Against Us
American response to the Islamic terrorist assault on September 11, 2001, was correct. Our decision to invade Iraq was correct, and our resolve to root out terrorists wherever they exist and to stop rogue nations that help them is also correct.
Conclusion: The Task Ahead
We must eliminate the threat of a nuclear bomb being brought into one of our cities. We must destroy all terrorist networks everywhere. And we must reorganize our military and intelligence structures to find and kill terrorists, while keeping great power to protect from any nuclear threat.