A Review of Gore Vidal's The Rise and Fall of the American Empire

It is easy, given America's current political atmosphere, to be miffed with Gore Vidal. But know this: the articles in this book were written before September 11, 2001, before the U. S. reprisals in Afghanistan, and before the War in Iraq. However, even if the articles were not written before these events, the 1st Amendment kinda guarantees free speech. (Preceeding preface written circa early 2003, but after the actual review)

I found Gore Vidal’s assessment of the issues he discussed in The Decline and Fall of the American Empire to be perceptive. I found his perceptions in turn to be fascinating in that they were often be at variance with what would be considered "mainstream consensus." The Decline and Fall of the American Empire is riddled with sarcasm, its objective, a strong criticism of the powers that be.

In The Day the American Empire Ran Out of Gas, an article that originally appeared in The Nation, Vidal is particularly concerned about the continued relevance of the United States in the global economy over the coming years. He argued that just as “the money power” shifted from Paris to London to New York, and then to Tokyo, America’s role in international economics was gradually diminishing.

He argued further that the American economy was, to be sure, doomed to failure if it continued on the path it was presently on—that of excessive spending on defense. In their time, the foursome of Alfred T. Mahan, Brooks Adams, Theodore Roosevelt, and Henry Cabot Lodge, according to Vidal, put America on a “constant wartime economy” with a view to expanding the “American Empire.”

Unfortunately, contends Vidal, what was for those “four horsemen” a means for expanding the American Empire, is today a means for siphoning money from the nation’s treasury to the various defense industries, who, in turn, pay for the election of congress, and the presidency.

He recommends that the government cease the close to 90%-of-revenues funding they provide to “euphemistically so-called” defense . Further, he contends that for America to remain relevant in future global economics, it must emulate the seeming coalition between Japan (technology) and China (land mass, human and natural resources), by forging such a coalition with Russia. In his own words,

I see our economic survival inextricably bound up with that of our neighbor in the Northern Hemisphere, the Soviet Union…we deserve each other.

Another issue that Vidal takes offense with is the hypocrisy of the US government. He accuses the US, of fighting “open and unsuccessful wars” in places like Vietnam and Korea, and “relatively covert wars in Cambodia, Laos, the Caribbean, central America, Africa, Chile, the middle east, etc.,” a state-of-affairs that is inextricably bound with the “national security state” Vidal abhors. He laments that,

...in almost every case, our overwhelming commitment to freedom, democracy and human rights has required us to support those regimes that would deny freedom, democracy and human rights to their own people.

Furthermore, he characterizes the fact that almost all the wars the US has been involved in since 1945 has been by executive, or national security council order as a flagrant abridgement of the US constitution (“the old testament which has been forgotten,”), since only congress, according to the constitution, may declare war.

The Fall of the American Empire was one of my readings for History 210: History of Contemporary Latin America at Harold Washington College.