Team America: World Police

In the aftermath of World War II, every nation of the world emerged mentally and, in some cases, physically altered. The physical affects of the Second World War spanning from Pearl Harbor to the battleground that made up most of Western Europe to Nagasaki and Hiroshima are visual pictures engrained in the minds of all, past and present, but the American ideology that these destructive images helped to give rise to would directly shape American domestic and foreign policy for approximately the next 50 years and indirectly shape the current policies implemented in the United States today. The United States, a world super power, entered World War II in December, 1941. The apprehensive and notably late involvement of the U.S. provided Allied Powers with fresh combatants and monetary backing that the Axis Powers lacked. America's late entrance and unprecedented force, which inevitably led to the end of the war in favor of the Allies, further cemented America's place as a world power. Although the United States gained its world power status before entering World War II because of its economic rise attributable to industrialization, rail roads, and abundant capital, America could be viewed in a "world tier" of its own for stepping in during a world war and ultimately ending the German force responsible for genocide. This world power standing in conjunction with the worldwide view of America's benevolent intervention has been best defined and articulated by Henry Luce as "American exceptionalism." Thus far, this historical summary has been one of optimism and American chivalry, but it has also been a historical account of an image which did not entirely exist. It is true that the United States entered the war and played a major role in ending World War II, but America's image to the rest of the world could partially be described as one of illusion – a form of propaganda issued by executives with an agenda, optimistic journalists, and the general American public.