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"test case" remained and the commitment to a non-Communist
South Vietnam was never modified.
Perhaps a word might be added with regard to the commonly
heard argument that the costs of the Vietnam War prove that the
U.S. has no imperial motives (as the costs of the Boer War prove
that the British empire was a figment of the radical imagination).
The costs, of course, are profits for selected segments of the Amer–
ican economy, in large measure. Though it is quite true that the costs
of empire to the imperial society may be considerable, they are dis–
tributed over the population as a whole, while the profits flow back
to special segments of the economy that are generally well rep–
resented in the formation of state policy. To the extent that this is
true, an empire functions as a device for internal consolidation of
power and wealth. At the same time, it provides markets, sources of
raw material, a cheap labor market and investment opportunities.
On the assumptions of the domino theory, the stakes in Vietnam
in this regard were considerable.
Still, it might very well be true that had the costs been anticipat–
ed, the Vietnam venture would not have been undertaken. But in
the real world, planners do not operate with a knowledge of ultimate
costs, and cannot begin allover again if policies fail. At each point,
they consider the costs and benefits of future acts. On these grounds,
the Vietnam involvement might very well have seemed reasonable,
within the framework of imperialist motives, though by the 1960s,
with the influx to Washington of ideologists and crisis-managers, it
can be argued - I think rather plausibly - that other and more
irrational considerations came to predominate.
Furthermore, even now that the bill is in, the effort might be
judged a moderate success for those segments of American society
that have a major interest in preserving an "integrated global sys–
tem" in which American capital can operate with reasonable free–
dom. Consider the assessment of the editor of the
Far Eastern Eco–
nomic Review,
generally committed to economic liberalism. He speaks
of "the ring of success stories in East and Southeast Asia," with the
Japanese economy serving as "the main factor in pulling the region
together and providing the shadowy outlines of a future co-prosperity
sphere ... and neatly complement [ingJ" the economies of the rest
of the region.
The imperial drive that is clearly expressed in many documents
