America After Ww2 Analysis

The topic of the impending doom of America is a popular one among writers today. Numerous articles claim that America’s rivals increase in power and influence while America itself is on the decline. As evidence of this gradual, but inevitable decline in American power, one writer claims that the US military has experienced nothing but stalemate, frustration and loss since its victory in World War II in 1945. Nevertheless, the author fails to distinguish between failures in war and failures in foreign policy. When this distinction is considered and taken into account, not only has the US military continued to be successful on the battlefield, but has done so overwhelmingly since the end of World War II. As we read in Joint Publication 1 (JP 1) the military comprises just one of the elements of national power, the others being diplomacy, information and economics . It is through all of these elements of national power that the President seeks to achieve national strategic objectives. However, when war is involved and the US fails to achieve these objectives, it is often cited as a military failure. This is understandable given that the military is the largest and most conspicuous of the elements of national power. Nevertheless, the nation can be successful in war yet not achieve its overall foreign policy objectives because it did not properly employ all …show more content…
While the military was unarguably in decline in terms of discipline and professionalism, it still successfully performed on the battlefield. During more than ten years the military never lost a major military engagement often overcoming great disparities in numbers as at Ia Drang and Khe San. The overall failure to achieve national foreign policy objectives was less due to the military’s inability to perform and more due to an imbalance in the employment of elements of national power, particularly that of