View source for Rollback

{{short description|Strategy of forcing a change}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Self reference|Within Wikipedia, "Rollback" may refer to [[Wikipedia:Rollback]].}}
[[File:US Marines with prisoners Grenada 1983.jpg|thumb|American troops detain members of the Grenadian [[People's Revolutionary Army (Grenada)|PRA]] in 1983.|alt=Two men in civilian clothes with their hands on their backs walk surrounded by three armed men in uniform. Military jeeps are seen in a second plane.]]
In [[political science]], '''rollback''' is the strategy of forcing a change in the major policies of a state, usually by [[Regime change|replacing its ruling regime]]. It contrasts with [[containment]], which means preventing the expansion of that state; and with [[détente]], which means developing a working relationship with that state. Most of the discussions of rollback in the scholarly literature deal with [[Foreign policy of the United States|United States foreign policy]] toward [[Communist state|communist countries]] during the [[Cold War]]. The rollback strategy was tried and was not successful in [[Korean War|Korea in 1950]] and in [[Bay of Pigs Invasion|Cuba in 1961]], but it was successful in [[United States invasion of Grenada|Grenada in 1983]]. The [[United States]] discussed the use of rollback during the [[East German uprising of 1953]] and the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956]], which were ultimately crushed by the [[Soviet Army]], but decided against it to avoid the risk of a major war.{{Sfn | Stöver | 2004| pp=97-102}}

Rollback of governments hostile to the U.S. took place during [[World War II]] (against Fascist Italy in 1943, Nazi Germany in 1945, and Imperial Japan in 1945), [[United States invasion of Afghanistan|Afghanistan]] (against the [[Taliban]] in 2001, though this would fail in the long term with the [[2021 Taliban offensive|Taliban returning to power in 2021]]), and [[2003 invasion of Iraq|Iraq]] (against [[Saddam Hussein]] in 2003). When directed against an established government, rollback is sometimes called "[[regime change]]".<ref>{{cite book| first =Robert | last = Litwak|title=Regime Change: U.S. Strategy Through the Prism of 9/11|url=https://archive.org/details/regimechange00robe| url-access =registration |year=2007|publisher=Johns Hopkins U.P. |page= [https://archive.org/details/regimechange00robe/page/109 109]| isbn = 9780801886423}}</ref>

==Terminology==
The term ''rollback'' was popularized in the 1940s and the 1950s, but the term is much older. Some Britons, opposed to Russian oppression against [[Poland]], proposed in 1835 a coalition that would be "united to roll back into its congenial steppes and deserts the tide of Russian barbarism."<ref>{{cite book|title=The British and Foreign Review Or European Quarterly Journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aP9SAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA53|year=1835|pages=52–53}}</ref> Scottish novelist and military historian [[John Buchan]] in 1915 wrote of the [[American Indian Wars]], "I cast back to my memory of the tales of Indian war, and could not believe but that the white man, if warned and armed, would rollback &#91;sic&#93; the [[Cherokee]]s."<ref>{{cite book|author=John Buchan|title=Salute to Adventurers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wLrgrQzGl6EC&pg=PA166|page=166|isbn=9780755117154|date=25 January 2011|publisher=House of Stratus }}</ref> More recently,{{When|date=November 2025}} [[John Mearsheimer]], professor of political science at the [[University of Chicago]], was significant in popularizing the term.<ref name=":Wang">{{Cite book |last=Wang |first=Frances Yaping |title=The Art of State Persuasion: China's Strategic Use of Media in Interstate Disputes |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2024 |isbn=9780197757512 |pages=24}}</ref>

==World War II==
Rollback includes military operations designed to destroy an enemy's armed forces and occupy its country, as was done in [[World War II]] to Italy, Germany, and Japan.<ref>{{Citation |first=Russell F |last=Weigley |title=The American Way of War: A History of United States Military Strategy and Policy |year=1977 |pages=145, 239, 325, 382, 391}}.</ref><ref>{{Citation |first=Sidney |last=Pash |chapter=Containment, Rollback and the Onset of the Pacific War, 1933–1941 |editor1-first=G Kurt |editor1-last=Piehler |editor2-first=Sidney |editor2-last=Pash |title=The United States and the Second World War: New Perspectives on Diplomacy, War, and the Home Front |year=2010 |pages=38–67}}.</ref>

==Cold War==
The notion of military rollback against the Soviet Union was proposed by strategist [[James Burnham]]<ref>{{Citation |first=Daniel |last=Kelly |title=James Burnham and the struggle for the world: a life |year=2002 |page=155}}.</ref> and other strategists in the late 1940s, and by the Truman Administration against North Korea in the [[Korean War]]. Much debated was the question whether the U.S. should pursue a rollback strategy against Soviet-occupied [[Satellite state#Soviet satellite states|satellite states]] in Eastern Europe in 1953–1956, which the United States ultimately decided against.<ref name="BorhiRoll">{{Citation |first=László |last=Borhi |url=http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_cold_war_studies/v001/1.3borhi.html |title=Rollback, Liberation, Containment, or Inaction? U.S. Policy and Eastern Europe in the 1950s |journal=Journal of Cold War Studies |volume=1 |issue=3 |year=1999 |pages=67–110 |doi=10.1162/152039799316976814|s2cid=57560214 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Instead of overt military rollback, the United States focused primarily on long-term [[psychological warfare]] and military or clandestine assistance to delegitimize Soviet-dominated communist regimes and help [[Insurgency|insurgents]]. These attempts began as early as 1945 in the [[Soviet Bloc]], including efforts to provide weapons to independence fighters in the [[Baltic states]] and [[Ukraine]]. Another early effort was against [[Albania]] in 1949, following the defeat of communist forces in the [[Greek Civil War]] that year. The operation had already been betrayed to the Soviets by the British double agent [[Kim Philby]], and led to the immediate capture or killing of the agents.<ref>{{Citation |first=Tim |last=Weiner |title=Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA |place=New York |publisher=Doubleday |year=2007 |pages=45–46}}.</ref>

===Harry Truman===
In the [[Korean War]], the United States and the [[United Nations]] officially endorsed a policy of rollback—the protection of South Korea against an invading army of the communist North Korean government—and sent UN forces across the [[38th parallel north|38th parallel]].<ref>{{Citation |first=James I |last=Matray |title=Truman's Plan for Victory: National Self-Determination and the Thirty-Eighth Parallel Decision in Korea |journal=Journal of American History |date=Sep 1979 |volume=66 |issue=2 |pages=314–33 |jstor=1900879 |publisher=JStor |doi=10.2307/1900879}}.</ref><ref>{{Citation |first=Bruce |last=Cumings |title=The Korean War: A History |year=2010 |pages=25, 210}}.</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=James L. Roark|title=Understanding the American Promise, Volume 2: From 1865: A Brief History of the United States|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZMlH-LpGRTYC&pg=PA740|year=2011|publisher=Bedford/St. Martin's|page=740|display-authors=etal|isbn=9781457608483}}</ref>

===Dwight Eisenhower===
After the [[1952 United States presidential election|1952 presidential election]], Republican spokesman [[John Foster Dulles]] took the lead in promoting a rollback policy.{{Sfn |Stöver |2004 |p=98}} The 1952 [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]]'s national platform reaffirmed this position, and [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] appointed Dulles as [[United States Secretary of State|Secretary of State]]. However, Eisenhower ultimately adopted containment instead of rollback in October 1953 through National Security Council document [[NSC 162/2]], effectively abandoning rollback efforts in Europe.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Robert R. Bowie|author2=Richard H. Immerman|title=Waging Peace: How Eisenhower Shaped an Enduring Cold War Strategy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VPHLOOMDP0UC&pg=PA171|year=2000|publisher=Oxford UP|page=171|isbn=9780195140484}}</ref>

Eisenhower instead relied on clandestine [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] actions to undermine hostile small governments and used economic and military foreign aid to strengthen governments supporting the American position in the Cold War. In August 1953, the United States, in collaboration with the British [[Secret Intelligence Service|SIS]], conducted [[1953 Iranian coup d'état|Operation Ajax]] to assist the Iranian military in the [[1953 Iranian coup d'état|restoration of the Shah]].<ref>{{Citation |first=John |last=Prados |title=Safe for Democracy: The Secret Wars of the CIA |year=2009 |chapter=6}}.</ref> Eisenhower adviser [[Charles Douglas Jackson]] also coordinated psychological warfare against the Soviet Bloc and the USSR itself. [[Radio Free Europe]], a private agency funded by Congress,  broadcast criticisms of communist regimes directed at Soviet [[satellite state]]s in the [[Eastern Bloc]].<ref>{{Citation |first=Arch |last=Puddington |title=Broadcasting Freedom: The Cold War Triumph of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty |year=2003}}.</ref>

In 1956, Eisenhower decided not to intervene during the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956]], which was subsequently brutally put down by the [[Soviet Army]]. The [[Suez Crisis]], which unfolded simultaneously, played an important role in hampering the U.S. response to the crisis in Hungary. The Suez Crisis made the condemnation of Soviet actions difficult. As Vice President [[Richard Nixon]] later explained: "We couldn't, on one hand, complain about the Soviets intervening in Hungary and, on the other hand, approve of the British and the French picking that particular time to intervene against [[Gamal Abdel Nasser]]."<ref name="BorhiRoll" />

===Ronald Reagan===
{{Main|Foreign policy of the Ronald Reagan administration}}

The "rollback" movement gained significant ground in the United States in the 1980s. The [[Presidency of Ronald Reagan|Reagan administration]], urged on by [[The Heritage Foundation]] and other influential conservatives, began to channel weapons to movements such as the [[Mujahideen]] in [[Afghanistan]], [[UNITA]] in [[Angola]], and the [[Contras]] in [[Nicaragua]]. The United States launched the [[United States invasion of Grenada|successful invasion of Grenada in 1983]] to protect American residents and reinstate constitutional government following a coup by what Reagan called "a brutal gang of leftist thugs."<ref>{{cite book|author=Thomas Carothers|title=In the Name of Democracy: U.S. Policy Toward Latin America in the Reagan Years|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1NDaha23lSAC&pg=PA113|year=1993|publisher=U. of California Press|pages=113–15|isbn=9780520082601}}</ref><ref>H. W. Brands, Jr., "Decisions on American Armed Intervention: Lebanon, Dominican Republic, and Grenada," ''Political Science Quarterly'' (1987) 102#4 pp. 607-624 quote at p 616 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2151304 in JSTOR]</ref>  Reagan's interventions came to be known as the [[Reagan Doctrine]].<ref>{{cite book|editor-first=Alexander |editor-last=DeConde |title=Encyclopedia of American foreign policy|url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofam03deco|url-access=registration |year=2002|publisher=Scribner|page=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofam03deco/page/273 273]|isbn=9780684806594 }}</ref>

Critics{{who|date=November 2023}} argued that the Reagan Doctrine led to so-called [[Blowback (intelligence)|blowback]] and an unnecessary intensification of [[Third World]] conflict. On the other hand, the Soviet Union eventually had to abandon [[Soviet–Afghan War|its invasion of Afghanistan]]. Jessica Martin writes, "Insofar as rollback is concerned, American support for rebels, especially in Afghanistan, at the time helped to drain Soviet coffers and tax its human resources, contributing to that nation's overall crisis and eventual [[Dissolution of the Soviet Union|disintegration]]."<ref>{{cite book|editor-first=Ruud |editor-last=Van Dijk |title=Encyclopedia of the Cold War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rUdmyzkw9q4C&pg=PA751|year=2008|publisher=Taylor & Francis |place=US|page=751|isbn=9780203880210 }}</ref><ref>{{Citation |first=James |last=Mann |title=The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan: A History of the End of the Cold War |year=2009}}.</ref>

=== George H. W. Bush ===
After the [[Iraqi invasion of Kuwait]] on 2 August 1990, a coalition of Western militaries deployed to protect [[Kuwait]] and [[Saudi Arabia]] from [[Ba'athist Iraq]]. While the [[Gulf War|Persian Gulf War]] successfully freed Kuwait, many military leaders and American politicians called for a full invasion of Iraq to replace Iraqi dictator [[Saddam Hussein]] and effectively roll back his regime. However, President Bush ultimately decided against a full invasion of Iraq.

Between 1988 and 1991, the fifteen [[Republics of the Soviet Union|Soviet republics]] gradually declared their laws superior to those of the Soviet Union, and the USSR ceased to exist on December 26, 1991.<ref>{{cite book|first=Victor |last=Rosenberg|title=Soviet-American Relations, 1953–1960: Diplomacy and Cultural Exchange During the Eisenhower Presidency |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y611AAAAMAAJ|year=2005|publisher=McFarland & Co.|page=260|isbn=9780786419340}}</ref>

==War on terror==

=== George W. Bush ===
{{Main|1=War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)|2=War in Iraq}}
Following the [[September 11 attacks]], his administration, along with a NATO coalition, undertook a [[War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)|war in Afghanistan]] to remove the [[Taliban]] government, which it believe had harbored [[al-Qaeda]], the group responsible for the attacks. Bush told Congress:
:The Taliban must act and act immediately. They will hand over the terrorists, or they will share in their fate.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=64731&st=&st1= |title=Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress on the United States Response to the Terrorist Attacks of September 11 |last=Bush |first=George W. |date=20 September 2001 |website=The American Presidency Project |access-date=2017-12-21}}</ref>
While the initial invasion succeeded in removing the Taliban from state power, after twenty years of a US military presence which was extremely unpopular both in Afghanistan and the US and was met with a Taliban insurgency, the [[Barack Obama]], [[Donald Trump]], and later [[Joe Biden]] administrations withdrew all US troops from Afghanistan, and in 2021 [[2021 Taliban offensive|the Taliban returned to power]].

Similarly, Bush opposed the regime of [[Saddam Hussein]] in Iraq, labeling the regime as part of an "[[axis of evil]]", which also included Iran and North Korea.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29644 |title=Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress on the State of the Union |last=Bush |first=George W. |date=29 January 2002 |website=The American Presidency Project |access-date=2017-12-21}}</ref> Additionally, the administration falsely claimed to believe Hussein possessed [[Iraq and weapons of mass destruction|weapons of mass destruction]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29645 |title=Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress on the State of the Union |last=Bush |first=George W. |date=January 28, 2003 |website=American Presidency Project |access-date=2017-12-21}}</ref> As a result, in March 2003, the U.S. military invaded Iraq and overthrew Hussein's regime.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
{{Library resources box}}
* Bodenheimer, Thomas, and Robert Gould. ''Rollback!: Right-wing Power in U.S. Foreign Policy'' (1999), hostile to the strategy
* Borhi, László. "Rollback, Liberation, Containment, or Inaction? U.S. Policy and Eastern Europe in the 1950s." ''Journal of Cold War Studies'' 1.3 (1999): 67-110. [https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1162/152039799316976814 online]
* Bowie, Robert R., and Richard H. Immerman. ''Waging Peace: How Eisenhower Shaped an Enduring Cold War Strategy'' (1998).
* Borhi, László. "Rollback, Liberation, Containment, or Inaction?: U.S. Policy and Eastern Europe in the 1950s," ''Journal of Cold War Studies,'' Fall 1999, Vol. 1 Issue 3, pp 67–110
* Grose, Peter. ''Operation Roll Back: America's Secret War behind the Iron Curtain'' (2000) [http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=4568 online review]
* Lesh, Bruce. "Limited War or a Rollback of Communism?: Truman, MacArthur, and the Korean Conflict," ''OAH Magazine of History,'' Oct 2008, Vol. 22 Issue 4, pp 47–53
* Meese III, Edwin.  "Rollback: Intelligence and the Reagan strategy in the developing world,"  in Peter Schweizer, ed., ''The Fall of the Berlin Wall'' (2000), pp 77–86
* {{Citation |last=Mitrovich |first=Gregory |title=Undermining the Kremlin: America's Strategy to Subvert the Soviet Bloc 1947-1956 |year=2000}}.
* {{Citation |last=Stöver |first=Bernd |contribution=Rollback: an offensive strategy for the Cold War |editor-first=Detlef |editor-last=Junker |title=United States and Germany in the era of the Cold War, 1945 to 1990, A handbook |volume=1: 1945–1968 |year=2004 |pages=97–102}}.

===Primary sources===
* {{Citation |last=Burnham |first=James |title=Struggle for the World |year=1947}}.

{{Cold War}}
{{Foreign relations of the United States |expanded=DPC}}
{{Soviet Union–United States relations|state=collapsed}}

[[Category:Cold War terminology]]
[[Category:Cold War policies]]
[[Category:Foreign policy doctrines of the United States]]
[[Category:History of the foreign relations of the United States]]
[[Category:Soviet Union–United States relations]]