Answer: Two main events in 1949 shook American confidence concerning the success of U.S. containment policies. The first came in September of 1949 when U.S. intelligence discovered that the Soviet Union had successfully tested an atomic bomb the previous month in Kazakhstan.
Past events in the Middle East prove what occurs when alliances fight and deterrence loses its power. Persian and Russian adventurism across this region has weakened the trust of American nations and increased the dangers of war. American countries, like Saudi Arabia, who worry American withdrawal, have grown increasingly vulnerable. Saudi freelancing in Syria and Yemen may cause too significant difficulty down this way; Riyadh is not institutionally equipped to take the burdens it is trying to carry. Another essential disadvantage facing U.S. Policymakers is that this world rule is using foundations (like the UN) that are both awkward to work with and difficult to change. As we go farther and farther from the conditions at which some of these establishments were established, they become more unwieldy, but for same reasons, countries who were more powerful then than now grow more intensely opposed to change. The flaws of the earth’s institutions of government and practice are especially tricky for the order-building, alliance-minded state like the U.S.
