Freedom, Society, and State - Ludwig von Mises Institute

ass urethe sur v i val and sueces S 0 f 1 i be r t y ," and Lyndon
Johnson's "shrunken world theory of defensive war,"
which held that "warfare anywhere on earth could, if
the President so judged, constitute an attack on the
Uni ted States and thereby authorise him to wage 'defensive'
war without congressional consent."(36) But not
only did the conservatives usually adhere to the goals
of "liberal internationalism," theysuppl"emented these
goa I s wit h the i rown pol icy 0 fan ticomm un ism and the
two bee arne a I I but i ndis ting u isha b Ie. The res u I t wa s
the emergence of the "bi-partisan" foreign policy of
the postwar period which, according to Bresler,. "immobil
ized opposition to the executive and denied the public
a focal point for debate."(37)
Quite clearly, both "liberal internationalism" and
" i n t ern a t ion a 1 ant i c omID un ism" r e qui red a n act i ve for e ­
ign pol icy. An active foreign policy in turn necessitated
the centralization of power in the executive
branch, and the absence of any organized foreign policy
debate reSUlting from "bi-partisanship" permitted that
centralization. Whether unwittingly or not, the ideology
of 1 iberal internationalism, says Bresler, played
into the hands of the corporate elite who required just
such an active foreign policy to insure world stability
and the protection of their investments.(38) Thus
"liberal internationalism" is believed to have provided
the necessary ideological cloak for a policy of imperialism
and economic exploitation.
But whenever that policy resulted in bloody wars,
and support for it began to wane, reliance on the other
e 1 em e nt, the f ear 0 f for e i g n enem i es, wa s uti lize d •
The active foreign policy of "liberal internationalism"
includes the establishment of military bases throughout
the world and these, in turn, insure that enemies
wi 11 always be found when they are needed. George
Lundberg commented that
Ace 0 r din g toe u r r en t pol icy, 0 ur na tiona I
secur i ty demands mi 1 i tary bases around the
W 0 rid and e 1 abo rat e mil itaryes tab 1 i s hme n t s
off the shores or on the frontiers of other
nations. .It is solemnly affirmed that
these provisions are for defense only, and
an ype r son , party, or foreign nat ion t hat
fails to take our word for this intent is
roundly abused and is accused of aggressive
designs upon us.(39)
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