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C00002 00002	THE UNITED STATES SHOULD RESIGN AS LEADER OF THE FREE WORLD
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THE UNITED STATES SHOULD RESIGN AS LEADER OF THE FREE WORLD


	\F2The U.S. role as leader of the Free World has gradually become
counter-productive, because it has produced attitudes of complaining
dependence, whereby other countries have to be bribed to defend themselves
against either economic or military disaster.
We had better drop our alliances and leave them on their own except for
countries that are already doing all they can to defend themselves such
as Israel and possibly South Vietnam.  Should a situation arise in the
future in which countries are doing all they can for themselves and it is
still not enough, we should again consider helping, but we should be very
reluctant to again assume the primary responsibility.\F0
This article discusses how this came about, what might have been
done to prevent it, what decisions should now be made, and what the consequences
of these decisions might be.  Some of the decisions advocated will have
some unpleasant consequences, but letting the present situation continue
is worse.


HISTORY

	The U.S. leadership of the Free World arose after U.S. entry into
World War II.  At the time of our entry, our allies were doing all they
could to defend themselves against Nazi Germany and Japan.  In December 1941
we were the unmobilized country, and this was natural, because we were the
last attacked and the least threatened.  Our leading role arose
as our economic and technological power was quickly turned into military power.
During World War II, there was no significant deterioration in the quality
of the alliance; every country did as much as it could.

	The spirit of the alliance continued substantially into the era of
the Marshall Plan and the formation of NATO.  During the Marshall period
Western Europe worked hard to restore its economy, and our aid played an
important but only supplementary role.  When South Korea was invaded in
1949, the allies contributed significant numbers of troops to its defense,
although the U.S. role dominated more than it did during World War II.
The last significant effort of military self-assertion on the part of
Western Europe was the British-French invasion of Egypt in 1956 when the
Egyptians took over the Suez Canal.  The U.S. opposed this, because we
regarded it as an attempt to maintain Egypt in the situation of a colony.
In my opinion, we confused maintenance of colonial power with maintenance
of property rights at that time, and this confusion has cost the world
dearly since that time.  (It has led the world to accept an absolute
Arab property right to oil that they contributed nothing to discover
or develop and to allow them to abrogate all treaties and contracts).