The conclusion notes the American addiction to poor strategic ideas and how the US has done a poor job of preparing strategic thinkers. It reiterates the problem of nonexistent aims, the problems with the blundering or clumsy use of US power, while also showing the great success the US has enjoyed. America needs to relearn how to use its power to meet the challenges ahead and to think more clearly about political aims and strategy.

Lyndon Johnson (LBJ) escalated American involvement in the Vietnam War. He used the Tonkin Gulf incident to secure the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, which gave him the leeway to intervene as he saw fit. The administration sought to coerce the North into a settlement guaranteeing South Vietnam’s independence. It launched first the ROLLONG THUNDER bombing campaign, which failed to achieve its aims. Meanwhile, the US increased its ground forces under William Westmoreland. He pursued a strategy built upon attrition of North Vietnamese forces, pacification of areas threatened by the Viet Cong insurgents, and training of the ARVN, the Army of the Republic of South Vietnam. The North enjoyed sanctuary in Cambodia and Laos and benefitted from the Ho Chi Minh trail running through Laos to move men and material into South Vietnam. Westmoreland launched “search and destroy” operations and relied on an inaccurate “body count” of enemy dead to measure the effectiveness of his strategy, which was shown to have failed when the North launched its 1968 Tet Offensive. Johnson refused to run for reelection, and Westmoreland was replaced.

This chapter examines the American War for Independence and the quest for sovereignty during and after the war. It reveals the shifting of American aims from “redress of grievances” to independence, and the shifting nature of George Washington’s strategy of protraction, moving from his “War of Posts” to his Fabian strategy. It also examines Britain’s “divide and conquer” strategy and “Southern strategy,” the global war, and the Southern campaign. It then tackles the Confederation period, the creation of Constitutional government, the economic strategy of America’s first grand strategist, Alexander Hamilton, and the Washington administration, including its Indian wars. The debate over tariffs began here: were they to protect industry or raise revenue? It concludes with the Adams administration and the Quasi-War with France.

This introduction provides a method for thinking about grand strategy based upon first determining the political aim and then examining the various instruments of national power harnessed to achieve these aims – diplomacy, information, military, and economic (DIME). Strategy is about the use of power, which this chapter makes clear. It also reveals the dominant American political aims: sovereignty, security, expansion, and democracy abroad.

The George W. Bush administration spread democracy via its “Global War on Terror.” After the 9/11 Al Qaeda attacks, the administration fought wars to overthrow totalitarian regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq. The same mistakes were made in each: a failure to provide sufficient forces, a failure to plan for the postwar situation, a failure to prevent looting in both capitals, a failure to negotiate a peace with the overthrown regimes. The US waged conventional and counterinsurgency campaigns in each nation. Defeat in Iraq was averted by Bush’s “surge” of additional troops and a Sunni uprising against Al Qaeda. Meanwhile, the economy boomed under Bush, until the housing bubble burst in 2008. The greatest global economic crisis since the Great Depression followed.

The US completed conquest of the West during a period of rapid industrial and population growth. William Henry Seward launched many peaceful failed expansionist efforts but secured “Seward’s Folly” – Alaska . During Grant’s administration, maintenance of tariffs became an underpinning of the Republican Party. The US fought numerous wars to secure Indian lands and forced them to government reservations. The Red Cloud War was one the US lost. The Indians were better individual soldiers but lacked numbers, organization, logistical support, and secure bases. The US fought Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Cochise, Chief Joseph, and others. And lost the Battle of Little Bighorn during the Great Sioux War, where George Armstrong Custer was killed. The US fought the Nez Perce, Comanche, Cheyenne, Kiowa, Apache, Mescalero, Navajo, Bannocks, Shoshone, Northern Paiutes, Arapaho, Crow, Modoc, Klamath, Utes, and others. By 1890, the conquest of the West was complete, and America dominated the continent. Meanwhile, the administrations of Rutherford B. Hayes, Chester Arthur, Grover Cleveland, and Benjamin Harrison oversaw America’s rise to economic preeminence, the Gilded Age, construction of a modern navy, and increased American involvement abroad, particularly in Latin America. Alfred Thayer Mahan authored The Influence of Sea Power upon History.

Woodrow Wilson produced one the greatest changes in American strategic history: America would now go abroad to establish democratic governments. He was also America’s most interventionist president and commonly used American military power to force Latin American nations to behave as he thought they should. Wilson fought wars in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and two against Mexico, and sent troops into Cuba. He most famously took the US into the First World War because of German unrestricted submarine warfare against merchant shipping and the Zimmerman Telegram. Wilson sought a democratic German government and to create a stable peace, but he was reluctant to consider the aims of the other Allied coalition nations, Britain, France, and Italy. The US was unprepared to enter the First World War but built an enormous army under John J. Pershing that it deployed to France and used to help win the war in 1918. Wilson sought peace on the basis of his Fourteen Points. The Treaty of Versailles settled the war and established the League of Nations, but Wilson’s stubbornness prevented the treaty’s approval by the US Senate.

Ronald Reagan decided he would win the Cold War against the Soviet Union. This required a strong economy. He supported the Federal Reserve breaking inflation with high interest rates. He also reduced taxes and regulation. After a short recession, the economy boomed. Reagan harnessed all elements of national power in pursuit of democracy and freedom abroad. Military strength was key, and he launched a massive rearmament program. He pushed human rights issues, pointed out Soviet abuses and hypocrisy, separated the Eastern Bloc from Western money and technology, blocked Soviet advances in the Third World, and used insurgencies against Soviet clients as Moscow did against the West. But Reagan also feared a nuclear exchange and was eager to negotiate reductions in nuclear weapons. He benefitted from Soviet economic weakness, political bankruptcy, and the rise of Mikhail Gorbachev, who realized the Soviet Union needed reduced tensions with the West in order to reform its broken system. George H. W. Bush succeeded Reagan, continued his grand strategy, and reaped the benefit of victory in the Cold War with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the spread of democracy to Eastern and Central Europe, as well as other areas, particularly Latin America.

Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger believed they could remake the international order in American interests to achieve greater international stability and reduce American costs and commitments. This required bringing China out of its isolation, which was an international bombshell. Under the Nixon Doctrine, the US would maintain its relationships but now bear less of the burden. Nixon and Kissinger used “linkage” to resolve issues with the Soviet Union and launched détente with Moscow. Moscow did what it wanted. Middle East involvement intensified, particularly with Israel and Saudi Arabia. Nixon wanted out of Vietnam but did not want to abandon South Vietnam. Nixon and Kissinger tried to push Hanoi to its breaking point while negotiating America’s exit and drawing down. This was contradictory. Creighton Abrams ran the US war. He was ordered to abandon attrition but continued “search and destroy” operations and pacification. Vietnamization – turning the war over to South Vietnam – became a key strategy element. The US bombed and invaded the North’s sanctuary in Cambodia, backed a South Vietnamese invasion of Laos, helped thwart North Vietnam’s 1972 Easter Offensive into South Vietnam, partially via LINEBACKER, and coerced North Vietnam into signing a 1973 US withdrawal agreement via LINEBACKER II. The North conquered the South in 1975. Gerald Ford succeeded Nixon.

This chapter begins with the Thomas Jefferson administration. It examines his expansionism, including the Louisiana Purchase, and efforts to build a democracy emphasizing the yeoman farmer, his wars against the Barbary pirates and Tecumseh, efforts to counter Britain’s predatory dumping, and trade and political tensions with Britain that led to the War of 1812. James Madison led an unprepared United States into war against Great Britain in 1812. The US mounted numerous failed invasions of Canada and suffered many defeats until later in the war. The war saw the rise of Andrew Jackson, a successful American general. Also examined is the Second Barbary War. Expansion, security, and sovereignty remained key aims, and the tariff remained a key issue.

The Dwight David Eisenhower administration launched a security reassessment known as Project Solarium. This produced a new grand strategy known as the New Look. Eisenhower wanted to cut the cost of defense and famously warned about the dangers of the “military-industrial complex.” A solution was a reliance on atomic and then nuclear weapons. These were cheaper than standing forces. Eisenhower also stressed economic support abroad, alliance relationships, information operations, and subversion of Communist-leaning states abroad such as Guatemala and Iran. Secretary of State Dean Acheson gave us “brinksmanship” and “massive retaliation.” John F. Kennedy succeeded Eisenhower and criticized him for a supposed “missile gap” with the Soviet Union. Kennedy promulgated no official national security strategy but developed a grand strategy known as Flexible Response. His administration abandoned Eisenhower’s near-total dependence on nuclear weapons for a broader defense strategy. He faced crises in Berlin and particularly in Cuba. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara gave us MAD – mutually assured destruction. Kennedy moved America from an advising to a combat role in South Vietnam.

The Cold War, or Hot Peace, now descended. The US, under Harry Truman, found itself taking on the role of global leader for the first time. It faced a shattered world and an aggressive Soviet Union under Josef Stalin. Truman launched the Truman Doctrine to help democracies under threat, and the Marshall Plan to help an economically prostrate Europe. George F. Kennan analyzed Soviet behavior in his Long Telegram and “X” article and gave us the strategy of containment. The US responded to Soviet aggression with the Berlin Airlift, joining NATO, and developing NSC 68. Communist aggression broke into the open in 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea. Truman intervened, and then put the UN and the idea of collective security to the test by obtaining UN support for South Korea, something made possible by the Soviet boycott of the security council. General Douglas MacArthur’s amphibious landing at Inchon destroyed the North Korean invasion. Truman then ordered MacArthur to invade North Korea, having decided upon this before the invasion. Mao Tse-Tung’s Communist China intervened in support of North Korea and pushed the US forces back to South Korea. A bloody back-and-forth war ensued and extended negotiations eventually ended the conflict in 1953.

Domestic political pressure drove William McKinley to launch the Spanish-American War after an internal explosion sank the battleship Maine in Havana Harbor. As usual, the US wasn’t prepared for the war, but Spain proved no match for American military power. The US fought for Cuban independence but also joined the imperial powers by securing colonial possessions such as Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. The US also annexed Hawaii. The US soon faced an unexpected war in the Philippines for which it was also unprepared, and eventually won. Theodore Roosevelt succeeded the assassinated McKinley, secured land for the Panama Canal, and launched the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. William Howard Taft followed Roosevelt to the White House and launched a failed “Dollar Diplomacy” grand strategy. American involvement in Latin America and the Caribbean intensified, particularly in Cuba and the Dominican Republic.

The administration of Warren G. Harding represented a “return to normalcy.” He was followed by two other Republicans, Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover. They all practiced a form of laissez-faire economics, and the US enjoyed a postwar economic boom, except in agriculture, which suffered its own postwar depression before the Depression because of overproduction and the loss of wartime markets. The US did not become “isolationist” during this period but instead entered its most intense period of international involvement. Secretaries of State Charles Evans Hughes and Frank Kellogg secured the Washington Naval Treaties, formulated the Dawes plan for war debt financial relief, the Kellogg–Briand Pact, and the Locarno Agreement, and the Young Plan. The US also fought a war in Nicaragua. Hoover launched what became known as the Good Neighbor Policy in Latin America, which his successor, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, pursued. The 1929 stock market crash and then the Great Depression began under Hoover’s administration and continued under Roosevelt. Both had little success using government intervention to revive the economy, and Roosevelt’s attacks on business slowed recovery as Cordell Hull lowered US tariffs. Roosevelt’s New Deal greatly expanded the role of government in US life.