Post-Vietnam neoconservatives advocated intervention and heavy military spending against liberal restraint.

Evidence

In September 2000, the neoconservative think tank Project for the New American Century released a document outlining its foreign policy vision. It called for the United States to use overwhelming military force to take control of the Persian Gulf region, for “maintaining global US preeminence … and [for] shaping the international security order in line with American principles and interests.” This goal, the report went on to add, was going to take some time to be realized “absent some catastrophic event—like a new Pearl Harbor.” On September 11, 2001, such an event did occur—at a time when the neoconservative wing of the foreign policy establishment held powerful positions in the administration of George W. Bush. The crisis of 9/11 positioned the neocons to realize their vision and to project US power on a global scale. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 476 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Neoconservatives believe only overwhelming American military dominance prevents great power war; Neoconservatism originated as a 1970s left-to-right defection over Vietnam and anti-war liberalism — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 424; Neoconservatives anticipated needing a catastrophic event to justify Gulf war plans — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 476

Broader Connections

• Neoconservatives anticipated needing a catastrophic event to justify Gulf war plans #complicates (0.80) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 476