Like the Romans, Mongols, and so many great powers in history, modern European nations used their military power to establish global empires predicated on trade, extracted wealth, and political influence. But these empires always viewed their foreign “subjects” as just that, subject servants to the central power in London, Amsterdam, Paris, and Madrid.
Not so the United States. Though still a young child in the grand sum of history, America has done far more for human freedom than any other nation. It has repeatedly sent its youngest citizens to fight for foreign freedom. It has long defended foreign borders against current and future threats. And while America has ultimately benefited from the prosperity born of Pax Americana, this peace has been both hard-won and hard-maintained.
The scale of American sacrifices for freedom is truly something to behold.
The nation lost 53,400 killed in action in World War I, 291,500 killed in action in World War II, 33,700 killed in action in the Korean War, and 47,300 defending Vietnam. Nearly 6,000 Americans died during the liberation of Kuwait in 1991, Afghanistan in 2001, and Iraq in 2003. More than 1 million Americans were seriously wounded across these conflicts. This is not to say that all these wars were prudent, but rather that Americans have long given a great deal for the freedom of others.
The U.S. is imperfect, of course.
The Philippine-American War led to hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths. The conduct of and eventual withdrawal from the war in Vietnam was insufficiently deferential to civilian protection. The withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 was handled grotesquely, both in terms of abandoning defensible areas such as Kabul and Bagram air base, and in leaving American allies behind.
Still, although often insufficiently, our friends abroad recognize the sacrifices Americans have made for their freedom. The American fallen are remembered in musical salutes at London’s Royal Albert Hall, in the pristine maintenance of American war graves in Normandy, and on the Tablet of Honor in Seoul. These testaments record a country that has repeatedly made great sacrifices for faraway strangers.
To be sure, many Western Europeans have too comfortably forgotten that their post-World War II prosperity and freedom came only through American grant. Had the U.S. decided not to help the Soviet Union with lend-lease, or to then leave Europe to the Soviet Union after the war, Europeans would have substituted democracy and thriving civil society for gulags and endemic goods shortages. Allied leaders also know that while NATO serves both American and European interests, without America, it is paper-thin. So also do the leaders of Australia, Japan, the Philippines, and South Korea know that America remains instrumental to their freedom and security.
There is a good reason, after all, that so many central and eastern Europeans so adore America. They know what it was like to live under Nazi and then Soviet tyranny. Now liberated, they are thriving alongside an American ally that protects the democratic rule of law. But when Russian President Vladimir Putin uses (albeit often inaccurate) imperialist history to threaten them, they take him at his word. They also take seriously America’s expectation of burden sharing. Poland, for example, will spend at least 4.8% of its GDP on defense in 2026, a significantly higher figure than even the U.S. (projected to spend 3.3%-of-GDP on defense in 2026).
History is clear. America has provided unequaled service in establishing a condition of global freedom and prosperity unparalleled in human history. This history matters. To understand why, consider what was, what America did to make things better, and what might have otherwise been.
AMERICA 250: THE AMERICAN EMPIRE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY KING DOLLAR
For what was: watch the Krakow Ghetto liquidation scene from Schindler’s List.
For what America did to make things better, watch the D-Day transit scene from The Longest Day:
For what might otherwise have been, watch this scene from The Man in the High Castle. It sees an American SS officer honored in the now completed Volkshalle hall in a Nazi victorious postwar Berlin.
Yes, America is exceptional.