d calm co-existence was not viewed as being possible. One can view this version of strategic policy as the zero-sum game. In a zero sum world, every action has a good or bad effect, and your enemys gain, no matter how trivial, is a loss for you. Thus, any Soviet advancement comes at the direct expense of American prestige and position. Closely related to this worldview was what became famously known as the domino theory. If the United States allowed even a small and strategically unimportant state to fall into communist hands, she would be gravely damaged. This was because the communists would then use the country as a spring board to dominate the neighboring county and so and so on. Soon, all the countries of that region would fall into the soviet camp and the United States would become slowly encircled by communist states. Also the abandonment of an ally by the Unites States would shatter confidence of other countries in the determination of America to fight communism and could cause those countries to warm to the Soviet block. Another assumption that American policy makers held was that the colonial system was obsolete and would have to be scrapped. They had both idealistic and pragmatic roots. The Unites States had always viewed itself as a beacon of freedom and democracy to other peoples and nations. As such, the majority of this nations elite always viewed colonialism with disdain. Woodrow Wilsons fourteen points reinforced this after the end of World War I. The self-determination of peoples was a main foundation of that vision. The Unites States thus sympathized with the nationalistic aspirations of people in the post-war world.The final assumption made by American policy makers (military mostly) was that if the U.S. did find itself engaged in an armed conflict, superior America firepower would ultimately win out. No on challenged the premise that the Unites States was the most technologically advanced country in...
