American Bombing of Civilians since 1945

The United States of America became the world’s leading superpower after 1945. During the Cold War between the Soviet Bloc and Western capitalism between the late 1940s and the late 1980s, The USA deployed air power as part of a wider strategy to defeat communist forces in war zones. With the ending of the Cold War, and the risible predictions about ‘the end of history’, American bombing campaigns did not cease but transferred onto new enemies, including anti-Islamic Serbian nationalism, and Muslim countries in the Middle East after the attack on the Twin Towers in New York in September 2001. Yet while the USA continued to define itself as the leader of the Free World against totalitarian and anti-democratic global movements, its mostly left-wing critics claim it has in reality been pursuing a bullying and imperialistic policy geared towards US economic and political self-interest. These questions and themes are addressed in this chapter.