America's Retreat
As America abdicates its power in the face of pressing international crises, William Dick warns of a history of isolationism threatening to resurface. The question looms: will the U.S. reclaim its role on the world stage, or continue to leave allies in peril?
William Dick
Mar 4, 2025 - 9:32 AM
The Art of the Deal
Neville Chamberlain returned from Munich in 1938 waving a piece of paper, saying triumphantly, “I have Mr Hitler's signature on it – we shall have peace in our time”.
President Trump says he too wants Peace and he thinks he can do a deal with Mr Putin to secure that. We shall have to see if he succeeds, as his and JD Vance's churlish and aggressive bullying of President Zelensky in the Oval Office demonstrates a continuation of America's retreat from its position as the leading power in the world.
Pax Americana
In August 2021, when Biden ordered the disastrously precipitous retreat of all US forces from Afghanistan, I published an article on the Bruges Group website laying out the alternatives: which other world power might step forward to be world leader, filling the vacuum left by the USA's abdication from this role?
During his first presidency, Trump reached an agreement with the Afghan Taliban in Doha handing over Afghanistan to them. In August 2021 Biden implemented this with his precipitous withdrawal of all the US armed forces which had been supporting the Afghan government.
This was very badly organised, leaving many Afghans who had been helping the Americans as interpreters etc, completely in the lurch, abandoning them to the "tender mercies" of the Taliban. We all remember the footage showing desperate people clinging to the undercarriages of the USAF transport planes as they took off from Kabul airport, then falling to their deaths as they crashed to the tarmac - anything rather than falling into the hands of the vindictive and murderous Taleban.
And now we see Trump and Vance browbeating President Zelensky in the most churlish and disgraceful way, lacing their comments with gratuitous personal insults ("second-rate comedian", ""dictator", "you started the war", “do you own a suit?”), in order to get him to sign away the Ukrainian people's rights to the mineral wealth to be mined from their country. This, to show "gratitude" and pay them back for all the assistance in terms of wealth and weaponry supplied by the USA to the Ukrainian war effort so far. It has been said that no such terms of repayment were mentioned at the time when the supplies were provided.
Keystone USA
The USA has a long history of "isolationism", not wanting to get involved in wars or other expensive ventures outside their own hemisphere. This used to be called the "Monroe Doctrine". In fact they only entered World War I at the very end.
During WWII, President F.D. Roosevelt was acutely aware of the threat to human civilisation posed by Hitler's aggressive policies in Europe, aiming clearly at world domination. From the fall of France in June 1940, Britain stood alone to face down the Nazi German juggernaut which dominated the whole of the European continent. The fate of the world hung by a thread.
Churchill rallied the country in its darkest hour, with his memorable speech to the House of Commons, "...We shall fight them on the beaches, we shall fight them on the landing grounds, (....) until in God's good time the new world, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old."
This resonated with President Roosevelt, but Roosevelt was aware that the vast mass of US voters did not want to get involved in far-away wars on the other side of the "big beautiful ocean" (to quote President Trump), fighting in foreign wars, about which most of them knew little. It might be added that many Americans had migrated from Europe precisely to get away from the wars and difficulties in their countries of origin.
The British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain had tried to appease Hitler by letting him have Czechoslovakia, which he described as "a far-off country about which we know little". Even today, most Americans may not be able to find Ukraine on a map (a small minority own passports and have ever travelled abroad).
If the value of assistance so far provided to Ukraine by the USA amounts to $350bn, as some estimates have it, this would be around $1000 for every American man, woman and child. Doubtless Trump believes that, by demanding that the Ukrainians "pay it back", he will gain popularity amongst the inhabitants of "deep America" who do not really care much about the rest of the world, and resent having to pay their hard-earned tax dollars for wars abroad. His raucous sneer at Zelensky ".... and you're not even grateful..." smacks of pettiness, unworthy of him who is supposed to be leader of the Free World.
Zelensky is in fact painfully grateful. He is also aware that Ukraine is the front line. Trump seems to lack a global geo-strategic overview. Those who live in Eastern Europe are also painfully aware that if Ukraine goes under, they may well be next, with Putin taking advantage of the respite afforded by Trump's “peace” to reorganise and replenish his supplies before massing his tanks again, this time on their frontiers, as he strives to rebuild and restore the Soviet Empire (he has said its dissolution is the “worst tragedy of the 20th century”). Moldova is particularly exposed, not being in Nato.
Navigating the Rules
In Roosevelt's day, the US Congress voted a law banning the supply of weaponry to foreign belligerent nations, although commercial sale was allowed. Churchill was appealing desperately for ships, tanks, fighter planes, and material which he knew American factories could turn out in large quantities. "Just give us the tools, and we will finish the job" he pleaded. So, to get round the Congressional ban, Roosevelt invented the "lease-lend" formula to supply the UK with the "tools" of war it needed.
Then, on 7th December 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbour and the USA was at war whether it wanted it or not. Shortly after that Hitler and Mussolini also declared war on the USA. If they had not done this, the USA might have concentrated all its efforts just on fighting Japan in the Pacific theatre, but as it was, Roosevelt was able to convince Congress and the people that this was a World War, and the future of humanity was at stake, for the outcome would decide whether basic values of freedom, democracy, and plain decency, would survive and prosper anywhere in the world or be ground underfoot by the jackboot of the Axis dictators. So the USA also deployed its power and might in the European theatre, first bolstering the defence of Britain, and then invading Europe and taking the war to the Axis heartlands.
Of course Trump does have a good point when he demands that the Europeans should step up to their responsibilities for their own defence. They have enjoyed American largesse in defence since WWII, freeing up their budgets for generous welfare provision for their citizens. They are in fact now called on to fill the gap left by the reduction in the US commitment to fund the Ukrainian war effort.
We shall have to see now if they are able and willing to do this.
William Dick
William Dick | Political and Legal Journalist