“But Bush did share Reagan’s desire to relegitimize the use of force and maintain a massive military capacity. His chance came in Panama” Pg. 411

In the post cold war world, the United States emerged as the only legitimate super power in the world. George H.W. Bush felt that as the only super power, the United States had a responsibility to police the world and maintain its personal interests globally. The most famous recourse from the this ideology was the invasion of Iraq after Saddam Hussein had himself invaded Kuwait, but the Bush had already started a precedent when he invaded Panama. After they deemed that the leader and trained United States agent Manuel Noriega no longer served his purpose, Panama was invaded and Noriega was arrested. This invasion would be a prelude to an era of United States history that was plagued with foreign invasions to protect self interests.

“The Soviets saw SDI not as a defensive measure but as a prelude to an attack” Pg. 393

No program reinforces Freeman’s argument that the early 1980’s saw a re-ignition of tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States then creation of the Strategic Defense Initiative in 1983. Sold to the American public as a purely defense measures, the strategic defense Initiative was an attempt to use new technologies, namely satellites in space, to monitor and if need be destroy any soviet missiles fired at the United States, granting it it’s nickname ” Star Wars”. The Soviet Union officials did not see it that way, instead they were convinced that it would be used as an offensive measure and became even more mistrusting of America. The program never really took flight ,as  both the technology was  simply not advanced enough and it did not generate a large amount of support.

” A onetime Navy officer who ran a family peanut business, he  [Carter] had limited political experience and none in Washington to tar him with a public fed up with their national leaders”     Pg. 326

In the post-Watergate America, the general population had grown very untrusting and unsatisfied with their government. They saw that their leaders had grown corrupt and the idea that the government should be made up of representatives speaking for their incumbents and leaders who worked for the people was all but forgotten. The people made it clear that they wanted a change during the election of 1976. They were presented with two options. The first was Ford the incumbent, who was most associated with pardoning the disgraced Nixon and being stonewalled by Congress. The second was Carter, a no-name military man whose lack of experience was seen as a positive rather than a negative. The fact that Carter was the one that was chosen showed how the American population would no longer stand for stagnant government.

“Anti-rational thinking seemed to be on the rise, perhaps a rational response to a moment when technocratic rationality has seemingly brought social failure on both the national and international fronts”  Pg. 314

Freeman notes on the  trend of the rise of nontraditional religions during the 1970’s in America, saying that its rise was an direct reaction to the dystopian like culture that had swept the nation during that time. The Church of Scientology offered an alternative belief system to  the classic Protestant ideology that was once so commonplace among the American public. The hard truth of the matter is that people had become desperate and destitute. They had look at the world around them, compared it the lifestyle they knew during the 1950’s, and were shocked by the decline in their nation. When the saw one system fail, many felt that they had no choice but find another. One of the mantra’s for Scientology is  “A civilization without insanity, without criminals and without war, where the able can prosper and honest beings can have rights, and where man is free to rise to greater heights, are the aims of Scientology.”

“But after the Bay of Pigs, the widely held view that he [John F.Kennedy] had been outmatched by Khrushchev at the 1961 Vienna summit…”

pg. 224

The American ego, from a military stand point,  was at an all time high in wake of the second World War. Not only did the United States emerge victorious from the greatest conflict that the world had ever seen, it did so against an almost objectively and overtly evil enemy. The failure of the invasion at the Bay of Pigs was the bursting of that military prowess bubble for the American people. It was a complete and utter failure. It not only made the American people realize that their military was  not invincible, but also  created doubt and mistrust between the people and the government. The confidential and classified use of C.I.A operatives for this operation caste a dark shadow around the whole invasion. The Bay of Pigs was the sowing of the seed planted by the U.S government that would soon grow into the wide spread political dissent that was rampant in the 60’s.