Theodore Roosevelt Role in the American History Essay (Critical Writing)

President Teddy Roosevelt’s impact on the American view of national security

Theodore Roosevelt believed in using to the utmost the constitutional power of the president. He promoted a program that promoted national planning that made the government put restrictions on incomes by initiating very high taxes. Teddy was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize because he promoted peace even when there was no peace and he warned against the danger of peace (Freeman, 1997).

President Teddy reversed the traditional U.S foreign policy of refraining from intervention in the affairs of other nations. Intervention had been the exception but he made it the rule. TR promoted a big navy that acted as a toll for an expansion of foreign policies. The navy was to defend the foreign policies that would bring power and prestige in the country (Powel, 2010).

According to Freeman (1997), Teddy Roosevelt’s most conflicting intervention was the attack of the Isthmus of Panama, which belonged to Colombia. He resulted to make a canal that connected the Atlantic and Pacific oceans to the US. Therefore, that navy could be easily moved in the oceans.

The other intervention that was made was in Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, and Nicaragua. This aimed to assist European investors to collect debts from deadbeat Latin American dictators so that European governments would not come up with a military structure in the Western Hemisphere.

This aggressive advocacy of intervention made his successors feel more comfortable to start foreign wars that killed Americans at the time when US was not under attacked. It motivated reactions from nationalist s that supported dictators and increased the number of foreign enemies hence it complicated efforts to have national security (Freeman, 1997).

Roosevelt supported schemes that assisted western state politicians to gain more power. Irrigation projects that were subsidized by the state, aimed at attracting farmers who would practice farming in western deserts but all these projects lost money. Roosevelt saw this as a loss and he came up with the idea of reclamation that the federal government should promote desert farming (Powel, 2010).

The reclamation Act of 1902 called for every senator and congressman to scramble to get into the subsidized reclamation project. In order to have political support, the project had to spread around (Powel, 2010).

The project brought a wide spread financial problem and the farmers who had no experience with irrigation ended up over-watering their crops, their irrigation systems became logged and they had the duty to pay for more acreage than they could handle. Many farmers had to quit, taxpayers had the problem to cover the losses and desert population reduced.

Teddy approved unfair government practices that discouraged private monopolies and those that pushed out private dam builders and assisted the Bureau of Reclamation to gain a dam building monopoly. The bureau made huge bureaucracy with 600 dams and reservoirs in 17 western states.

This led to loss on huge numbers because more water was lost due to evaporation from reservoirs in hot deserts than it was needed for human consumption in major cities (Powel, 2010).

Theodore Roosevelt gave a challenge to the American view that land use decisions are best made by private people who take a chance to the value of their poverty. He throttled privatization of land and in 1905, he transferred millions of acres of government land from department of the interior to the department of agriculture and established the US forest service that could manage it.

Because he made limitations to privatization, it helped to increase the size of land that the government controls. People could graze their cattle on national forest lands because the land was a common property (Freeman, 1997).

TR came up with the best conservation policies throughout the country. Fire was discourage in the forests and the Forest Service fought fire very where. This resulted to deadwood building up and trees increased (Freeman, 1997). Forest Service officials, in their alleged wisdom, ordered less logging, which accelerated the buildup of combustibles in national forests. Increasingly, instead of having many smaller fires to deal with, they faced huge conflagrations, which are harder to fight and more destructive.

Roosevelt used federal power to come up with five national parks as well as 51 wildlife refuges and 150 national forests even though they faced the problem of maintenance. Since TR thought parks were for big game, park rangers slaughtered wolves, cougars, and other predators (Powel, 2010).

Soaring elk populations consumed so much vegetation that beavers disappeared. Park rangers closed garbage dumps where bears feasted, and as a result starving bears raided campgrounds. They were slaughtered, too. Parks have been polluted by poorly maintained sewage systems because their gate receipts went to Washington and they had difficulty competing with bigger government programs for funding (Freeman, 1997).

The rationale for antitrust laws and TR’s idea of free market seemed to encourage monopolies and government interventions was required to maintain the competition. President Teddy Roosevelt supported high tariffs that assisted the politically connected businesses by reducing competitions and in the process, they broke the consumers more than any monopoly. Roosevelt ran United States foreign policy like a military commander. He used to dictate the policy and he made use of all his skills (Freeman, 1997).

America’s Grand Strategy for winning the Second World War

Roosevelt formed a military alliance with Great Britain, to win the war against Hitler’s Third Reich, but he had plans to create a different world, after the war to have a world without colonialism (Tomes, 2007). He was acutely aware of the danger, that unless colonialism were finally eradicated, another world war was virtually inevitable.

Unfortunately, Roosevelt’s grand design for the creation of new, independent nations to populate the world, did not come to be, after the war, due to Truman’s capitulation to the British (Tami, 2010).

They decided on a strategy of island hopping leaving the strongest garrisons alone, just cutting their supply, and securing bases of operation on the lightly defended isles instead.

The most notable of these Island battles where the American victory facilitated the aerial bombing of the Japanese mainland, which culminated in the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that effectively ended the war. Americans had to have a good, sound relationship between the soldiers fighting the war and the civilians who were guiding it (Tami, 2010).

They had to leverage successful, existing institutions to the hilt; to work to keep the domestic population in overall support of the war effort and take advantage of the enemy’s mistakes.

They also had to cooperate with allies, working to make the sum of the parts more powerful than the individual parts themselves; to build resilience into all plans, and make sure that all institutions involved in the war effort are capable of learning, adapting, and evolving to cope with unforeseen circumstances, and to solve unanticipated problems (Kraig, 2003).

Factors that led to the end of the Cold War

The Cold War refers to a period of prolonged pressure and hatred between deferential political and economic systems between USA and the Soviet Union. These opposing blocks were on a constant arms race. In addition, there was high rate of spying between these two parties in order to unravel the secrets that they had over each other. This created a lot of tension and unrest which led to the end of the cold war (Kraig, 2003).

The economies of nations were in trouble. People in East Germany saw the prosperity and wealth of their Western German neighbors. People could line up for food and they had to have coupons from the government even to buy the basic commodities. Money that was used to buy nuclear weapons had caused the problems.

Huge defense spending by America under Presidents Ronald Reagan is one o f the major factor in the end of the cold war. The western economies could absorb the expenses of programs such as the star wars missile defense but the Eastern bloc countries crippled themselves trying to match them.

Corrupt governments and citizens’ desire for greater personal freedom and greater individual wealth were also major factors in the collapse of the Soviet Union and its satellite countries (Kraig, 2003).

National Security Strategies used during the Cold War

Cold War threat made United States to look for a way to prevent the enemy’s use of force because the security of the environment had changed. Some of the National Security strategies that were used during the cold war include; champion aspirations for human dignity; strengthen alliances to defeat global terrorism and work to prevent attacks against them and their friends (Kraig, 2003).

They had a strategy to work with others to defuse regional conflicts. They also wanted to prevent their enemies from threatening them and their allies with weapons of mass destruction. They also hoped to ignite a new era of global economic growth through free markets and free trade.

The Expansion of the circle of development by opening societies and building the infrastructure of democracy was also another necessity. They also developed agendas for cooperative action with other main centers of global power; and transform America’s national security institutions to meet the challenges and opportunities of the twenty-first century(Kraig, 2003).

They also used alternative strategies such as the Strategy of Active Deterrence and Containment which they argued that a great power with global interests the united States must have enough power t protect its important interests without dependency on other nations or international institutions whose goals are different from US. They also use the Strategy of Cooperative Multilateralism arguing that the US cannot win the war unilaterally (Tami, 2010).

Strategies during the Cold War also dealt with nuclear attack and retaliation. The United States maintained a policy of limited first strike throughout the Cold War. In the event of a Soviet attack on the Western Front, resulting in a breakthrough, the United States would use tactical nuclear weapons to stop the attack (Tami, 2010).

Mistakes that led to the attacks on September 11, 2001

September 11, 2001 was a day of unprecedented shock and suffering in the history of the United States. The nation was unprepared. The day began with the 19 hijackers getting through a security checkpoint system that they had evidently analyzed and knew how to defeat.

Their success rate in penetrating the system was 19 for 19.They took over the four flights, taking advantage of aircrews and cockpits that were not prepared for the contingency of a suicide hijacking. Americans committed some mistakes that are discussed below.

They did not watch list future hijackers Hazmi and Mihdhar, not trailing them after they traveled to Bangkok, and not informing the FBI about one future hijacker’s U.S. visa or his companion’s travel to the United States and not expanding no-fly lists to include names from terrorist watch lists. They did not share information linking individuals in the Cole attack to Mihdhar (The 9/11 Commission Report, 2001).

They did not take adequate steps taking adequate steps in time to find Mihdhar or Hazmi in the United States. They did not have good linking to the arrest of Zacarias Moussaoui who is described as interested in flight training for the purpose of using an airplane in a terrorist act, to the heightened indications of attack.

They did not discover some false statements on visa applications and they did recognize passports manipulated in a fraudulent manner. Because they did not show the names from terrorists in the watch list, there was no searching airline passengers identified by the computer-based CAPPS screening system and lastly they did not harden aircraft cockpit doors or taking other measures to prepare for the possibility of suicide hijackings.

The CIA had minimal capacity to conduct paramilitary operations with its own personnel, and it did not seek a large-scale expansion of these capabilities before 9/11. The CIA also needed to improve its capability to collect intelligence from human agents.

At no point before 9/11 was the Department of Defense fully engaged in the mission of countering al Qaeda, even though this was perhaps the most dangerous foreign enemy threatening the United States(THE 9/11 COMMISSION REPORT).

America’s homeland defenders faced outward. NORAD itself was barely able to retain any alert bases at all. Its plans were hijacked by the American targets (THE 9/11 COMMISSION REPORT). The most serious weaknesses in agency capabilities were in the domestic arena. The FBI did not have the capability to link the collective knowledge of agents in the field to national priorities. Other domestic agencies deferred to the FBI.

FAA capabilities were weak and so any serious examinations to get a possibility of a suicide hijacking could give some solutions to change the vulnerability and expanding no-flying lists, searching passengers who were identified by the computer screening system, employing domestic mershals, making the aircrews alert of what may happen and also hardening the cockpit door.

FAA did not make changes to their own training of the army and they did not take note of the threats that could happen in future (THE 9/11 COMMISSION REPORT).

There were also broader management issues with respect to how top leaders set priorities and allocated resources. The U.S. government did not find a way of pooling intelligence and using it to guide the planning and assignment of responsibilities for joint operations involving entities as disparate as the CIA, the FBI, the State Department, the military, and the agencies involved in homeland security (The 9/11 Commission Report, 2001).

Elements important in how the U.S. prosecuted the Persian Gulf War

Since World War I, the United Kingdom, France, and the United States have dominated the Arabian Peninsula and Gulf region and its oil resources. This was attained by military invasion and force, economic control by the government and though the military forces. All the elements were elements in the government were involved.

Vietnam and the Soviet experience in Afghanistan

The war that happened in Afghanistan had effects on domestic politics in the Soviet Union. The army was demoralized because they were seen as raiders. Andrei Sakharoc who is one of the human rights activists criticized the violence that the army committed. The image of the Soviet Army who fought against Islam also had some impact to the Islamic independence movement which had security threats to Russia (Savranskaya, 2001).

These troops had no anti-guerrilla training and the importance of the troops was to protect citizens from anti-guerilla forces. The soldiers found them fighting with the civilians whom they should protect and this led to killing of the local civilians (Savranskaya, 2001).The weapons that they used were weak for the Afghanistan attack.

When the United States Army spends time studying what went wrong in its defeat in Vietnam, there are real parallels between the US role in Vietnam and the Soviet. Though the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan seemed to surprise Washington, it should have been expected.

Moscow had every reason to prevent the collapse of a regime installed with its help and to defeat hostile tribal forces possibly supported by Russia’s enemies. The downfall of the Shah in Iran had removed the threat of American or Iranian intervention and made it possible for the Soviets to occupy Afghanistan without running a serious risk.

Moreover, the power vacuum that has recently emerged in the Middle East gave Russia an opportunity to achieve goals it had been pursuing for well over a century.

American’s invasion of Iraq in 2003 damaged its credibility

The invasion happened from March 19 to May 1 2003 and this was the beginning of conflict of Iraq war. There was a combination of troops from United States, Poland, United Kingdom and Australia (Ricks, 2006). These troops invaded Iraq and the fight was concluded with the capture of Baghdad which is the capital of Iraq by United States forces.

With the major justifications for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq the supposed possession of weapons of mass destruction and ties to the terrorist Al-Qaeda network discredited U.S, claims of wanting to create a democratic Iraq was now doubtful.

With the major justifications for the US invasion of Iraq US invasion of Iraq shows both the enormous military strength that the state had because it was the world’s superpower. It provided insight to the difficulties of demonstrating how it was powerful and how its army could fight despite the difficulties.

The invasion was aimed to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction and to end Saddam Hussein’s support for terrorism and they also aimed to free the Iraqi people.

Initially American because of the its impact was influential but when the fight became intense they lost their credibility because they bombed and destroyed human life ,commercial and business districts, hospitals, schools, churches, hospitals shelters, mosques , historical sites private vehicles and civilian government offices (Ricks, 2006).

Reference

Freeman, L. (1997). Roosevelt’s Grand Strategy’ to Rid the World of British Colonialism. Web.

Kraig, M. ( 2003). National Security Strategy of the United States of America : A Task Force Report of the Strategies for US National Security. Web.

Powel, J. (2010). Theodore Roosevelt, Big-Government Man. Web.

Ricks, T. (2006).The American Military Adventure in Iraq. New York: Penguin.

Savranskaya, S. (2001). Afghanistan Lessons from the Last War. Web.

Tami, D. (2010). Leveraging Strength: The Pillars of American Grand Strategy in World War II. Web.

Tomes, R. (2007). US Defense Strategy from Vietnam to Operation Iraqi Freedom: Military Innovation and the New American Way of War, 1973–2003.

New York: Routledge Press The 9/11 Commission Report (2001). Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. Web.