The Unquenchable Fire examines how the United States outsourced the work and costs of imperialism through arms exports after the Vietnam War. As wartime contracts disappeared and government officials confronted new limits to interventionism, a devastating recession pushed defense contractors abroad in the late 1960s and 1970s. While arms makers competed for markets, military exports became a vital feature of US foreign policy and fueled a global sales boom. Successive administrations liberalized the trade in order to bridge a balance of payments deficit, quell anti-systemic movements, ensure energy security, and safeguard hegemony. Adopting a transnational and multilingual approach, this dissertation assesses the logic, consequences, and legacy of US arms policy through interlocking case studies in Latin America and the Middle East. The study concludes that weapons exports reproduced the military-industrial complex, while allowing policymakers to reinvent the US empire after the Vietnam War.

Creator

• Ng, Jonathan Isaac

DOI

• https://doi.org/10.21985/n2-bx6j-0k97

Subject

• History

Language

• en

Alternate Identifier

• http://dissertations.umi.com/northwestern:15523
• etdadmin_upload_814644

Keyword

• military-industrial complex
• imperialism
• arms trade
• US foreign policy
• empire
• interventionism

Date created

• 2021-01-01

Resource type

• Dissertation

Rights statement

• In Copyright