Truman Doctrine Failure

The transformations of the United States ' foreign policy during and after World War II allowed her participation in future foreign affairs and completely denounced her policy as a isolationist state. The United States broke through the barrier of being an isolationist state and dedicated itself completely to preserving the welfare of the rest of the world. Largely due to the Truman Doctrine, the United States would no longer stay in the Western Hemisphere and hide behind the Monroe Doctrine, but would now make it her business to guide all facets of the world down the "right" path of liberty and democracy. This responsibility which the United States put upon herself would cause controversy and debate in the years to come. Is it the United States
Ho Chi Minh, the Communist leader of North Vietnam, invaded the Democratic North Vietnamese. Immediately, the United States began pouring troops, numbering over five hundred thousand at is peak, into the jungles of Vietnam. Again, nearly sixty-thousand American troops lost their lives, and this time, not even saving the defended country. The Vietnam War greatly hurt American spirits and the overall American attitude towards the philosophies which inspired the Truman Doctrine (Blum 837). Soldiers returned not as heroes, but as national disgraces and the reminders of the only completely failed American war. American liberators were now seen as American imperialists (Brinkley 937). Although the Vietnam War greatly stunned the American cause of spreading freedom, this cause would not easily die, and the Truman Doctrine would live to see another
However, in 1990, when Saddam Hussein of Iraq invaded neighboring Kuwait, President George Bush of the United States decided to take action. Iraq acquired a huge debt in her war against Iran, and the abundant oil supply in Kuwait was an attractive means of erasing this debt. With Iraq in control of a large amount of the World 's oil supply, the United States would be at Saddam Hussein 's mercy. In addition to the Kuwaiti oppression, the United States could not let this monopoly take place. President Bush commanded a prolonged series of bombings on Iraq which resulted in Hussein 's eventual withdrawal from Kuwait. This was not a war of containment, but it served a similar purpose in that it sought to prevent an aggressor from overtaking a weaker neighbor. Also, the United States fought for her oily supply, giving the war significant purpose in contrast to wide opinions concerning the Vietnam War (Schwartzkopf 55). Thus, the Gulf War received exponentially more praise and reestablished the validity of the Truman Doctrine (Schwartzkopf