Principalities & Powersnby Samuel FrancisnIn the space of a few months in 1989,nthe Soviet imperium in Eastern Europenbegan to disintegrate like a soda crackernin salt water, and even within thenU.S.S.R. itself, long dormant national,nethnic, and religious passions began tonsputter and whine. The Beriin Wall wasnturned into a collection of pet rocks,nand Americans suddenly began hearingnof peoples unknown to their ears sincenthe days when the pope had divisions:nMoldavians and Wallachians, Armeniansnand Azeris, Croats and Slovaks,nLithuanians and Ukrainians, Turks andnTadzhiks, Bulgarians and Byelorussians.nOne almost expected the Gepids andnthe Ostrogoths to set up their pennantsnand apply for membership in the UnitednNations.nYet even as Mikhail Gorbachev, tonthe thunderous cheers of the West,nrestructured the Soviet GommunistnParty last winter, Soviet military advisersnwere helping Angola’s Marxists polishnoff Jonas Savimbi’s anticommunistnguerrillas. Moreover, two days afternwhat must have been the 357th emendationnof the Soviet constitution sincen1917, Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf,ncommander for rapid deploymentnforces in the Middle East, testified tonGongress that the Soviets are still pulverizingnAfghanistan and pulling the wiresnof their puppet regime in Kabul, withnmore military aid than they forked overnwhen they occupied the place. Gommunismnmay have been chucked out ofnthe economic and intellectual ring, butnit still throws a good punch, and thenvision entertained by some people innthe West of a bucolic planet full ofnpeace and democracy may be just a bitnpremature.nNevertheless, whatever happens tonMr. Gorbachev or the Soviet regime,nit’s probably true that the conflict betweennthe Soviet Union and the UnitednStates has forever ceased to be thendefining concept of American foreignnpolicy. The Soviets may overrun Angolanand keep Afghanistan, and their apparatusnof spies, propagandists, andnhired malcontents may continue tonconspire, demonstrate, and subvert allnthey want. But the truth is that there isnvery little, short of nuclear attack, thatn10/CHRONICLESnthe decrepit Soviet Empire can do tonthe United States directly. The day-todaynbusiness of indigenous bureaucratsnin Washington and the technocraticntherapies they plot to impose on Americanncivil societ)’ are far more seriousnthreats to us than MIG-23’s in thenKhyber Pass or Moscow’s pet herds ofnclergymen armed with banners andnchicken blood.nThe end of the Gold War, or at leastnthe withdrawal of the United Statesnfrom the contest, affords an opportunitynfor Americans to redefine, for the firstntime since the days of the Trumannadministration, what we want to be andndo in the world beyond the oceans thatnsurround us. The redefinition will involvennot only deciding who gets thenbooty of the Peace Dividend or whichncongressional districts will lose militarynbases, but also an identification of whatnthe United States as a nation and anculture is going to be in the openingnyears of the next century. Foreign policynis almost always a reflection of whatnkind of order prevails at home.nSo it was when the Gold War began,nand the long quarrel that bubbled betweennanticommunist conservatives,nwho sought a strategy for victory, andnliberal globalists, who wanted to castnAmerica as the world’s social worker,nmirrored a more basic division overnwhat kind of society the United Statesnwould be in the late 20th century. TonHarry Truman, “the seeds of totalitariannregimes are nurtured by misery andnwant. They spread and grow in the evilnsoil of poverty and strife,” and “our helpnshould be primarily through economicnand financial aid, which is essential toneconomic stability and ordedy politicalnprocesses.” Gommunism, to the upliftednmind, was largely a symptom ofnunderlying social illnesses — poverty,ndisease, political repression — that onlynglobal programs of bureaucratically administerednforeign aid and developmentncould cure, just as only analogous domesticnprograms could provide the socialnand economic panaceas that Truman,nEleanor Roosevelt, and theirnfellow liberals prescribed.nThe concept of foreign policy as annextension of liberal social therapeuticsnopened vast opportunities for social engineeringnall over the world and offerednhuge rewards for those leaders andnnnelites, foreign and domestic, clevernenough to seize them. Most of then”corrupt dictators” installed or buoyednup by U.S. money and power beganntheir careers as progressive reformers,nand even Frangois Duvalier kept on hisndesk the portraits of three icons of liberalnhagiography—John F. Kennedy, MartinnLuther King, Jr., and Pope JohnnXXIII — along with two loaded revolvers.nAny or all of these items may havenhelped Papa Doc die in his bed with hisnsavage autocracy intact, one of the fewnrulers in the history of Haiti to do so;nbut the “progress” his brother despotsnor their American-trained elites imposednon their tribal and feudal societiesnonly helped to provoke the rebellionsnthat eventually caused their governmentsnto turn belly up in the tropicalnsun. Most of these gentlemen, whomntheir American admirers would notnhave cared to meet in a dark alley innManhattan, possessed as much characternand common sense as a Hollywoodnsex kitten, and neither their collapse nornthe whittling away of American powernthat resulted from their fall should havenbeen surprising.nOf course, U.S. foreign policy in thenGold War, once it had fallen under thencontrol of liberal elites, no more protectednAmerican national interests thanndomestic liberalism protected citizensnfrom professional cutpurses. Not enforcementnof elementary civic relationshipsnand national security but the entrenchmentnof bureaucratic and institutionalninterests was the real purposenof both. Hence, the United Statesnfound itself saddled with a military thatnwas unable or was not permitted to winnwars, intelligence agencies increasinglynimpotent to acquire reliable informationnor competently execute covert policies,nand a diplomatic service that couldnplausibly be accused of harboring trea­nson.nSuch public bureaucracies werenmatched and indeed closely linked withnprivate interests that nursed at the federalnbotde: businesses that grew fat offnforeign aid; government contractorsnwho designed and sold the high-technequivalents of underwater real estate innFlorida; universities that swelled theirn”plants” with federal research grantsnand contracts; and a horde of consultantsnin every known field of study whon