Name: How America could lose its allies | 2020 Election
Uploaded: 2020-10-20T18:05:05.000Z
Duration: 12 min 25 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

The Trump presidency is full of viral photos.

It's the leaders of America's closest allies, all looking in one direction,

It's just a photo, but it speaks to one of the biggest questions in the world right now.

Almost 70 years ago, the US built a network of alliances that helped make it

But today the future of those alliances is in doubt.

And they were in trouble even before Donald Trump took office.

Now, the world is watching a US election that could determine what the future looks like.

What is Trump's vision for America's role in the world?

In the beginning, the US had just one alliance:

with France, during the Revolutionary War against Great Britain.

But after the US won the war, it backed out.

And that's because, back then, allying with another country usually served one purpose:

Alliances were primarily used to fight and win specific wars.

The US was already protected by two giant oceans.

So for the next 150 years, America was alone.

"The United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked."

When Japan attacked a US naval base, it shattered the idea

that oceans could protect the US any longer.

So they formed an alliance with these countries, and declared war on Japan and its allies.

Together, they won the war, but faced a very different world in the aftermath.

After World War II, there were only two major powers: the US and the Soviet Union.

and some worried the Soviets might invade them and spread communism.

To protect against that, the US formed a collective alliance with 11 other countries:

the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO.

An armed attack on one member would be regarded as an attack on all,

requiring every member to come to its assistance.

The US had a massive military, while these countries had weak ones, if any at all.

That meant NATO was really a guarantee by the US to protect all these countries from attacks.

It was risky, but it gave the US leverage over countries that now depended on them for protection.

It used that leverage to align those countries with its own foreign policy.

And many allowed the US to build military bases inside their borders,

giving the US a first line of defense against the Soviets.

In 1948, North Korea had become a communist country. In 1949, so did China.

So the US signed individual alliances with six more countries.

The US also signed a collective alliance with 21 countries in Latin America.

By 1960, the Soviet Union was surrounded by countries that, if attacked,

For hundreds of years, alliances had been used to fight and win specific wars.

The real gamble that the United States was taking

was the idea that it would use alliances to keep wars from starting at all.

One of the first tests of this idea came in Berlin.

The city lay deep in Soviet- controlled East Germany, but was divided

between the NATO countries and the Soviets.

In 1961, the Soviet leader told western powers to leave.

Instead, the US and its allies quickly moved troops into Berlin.

And the US publicly committed to uphold its promise:

In response, the Soviets built a wall through the city -- and backed down.

The US guarantee also helped prevent further wars in Taiwan and Korea.

It proved that this system worked, but only if America's enemies and allies actually

trusted that the US would follow through.

So for the next 60 years, US presidents said it out loud.

"A nation cannot remain great if it betrays its allies and lets down its friends."

“Our ties with Japan and our European allies are stronger than ever.

"We will strengthen our historic ties and assure them of our support and firm commitment.”

"History is unfolding in the Soviet Union."

"Last one out of the Soviet Union, please turn out the lights."

"The United States recognizes and welcomes

the emergence of a free, independent, and democratic Russia."

Between 1989 and 1991, the Soviet Union and its communist allies in Europe fell apart.

Now the US was the world's only superpower. And most of its allies were safe from invasion.

But for NATO, that created an existential question:

Should the alliance go out of business because its primary adversary had disassembled itself?

Or should it find a new case for its being?

European leaders, and many American leaders, supported keeping NATO around,

to support democracy and security in Europe.

"Ultimately the best strategy to ensure our security, and to build a durable peace,

is to support the advance of democracy elsewhere."

"It would be a catastrophe for American interests

if instability were to alter the current situation in Europe."

In 1999, NATO added 3 former Soviet allies: Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary.

And NATO started intervening in conflicts outside of its membership.

In 1999, it bombed Serbian forces fighting in Kosovo.

NATO also helped the US invade Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks in 2001,

and supported parts of the war in Iraq in 2003.

Meanwhile, in Asia, the US had stayed close with South Korea and Japan to counter North Korea.

But the fall of the Soviet Union had made the alliances with these countries harder to justify.

Those relationships in a lot of ways, went adrift.

And that all created something of a soft strategic underbelly in Southeast Asia.

Some US leaders began to question the cost of those alliances.

The US had asked NATO allies to spend 2% of their GDP on defense,

but few countries were meeting that goal.

So they urged NATO, along with South Korea and Japan, to increase their spending --

while still reaffirming its promise to back its allies.

“We will defend our allies and our interests."