> The ideological part is about expanding global markets so US interests can extract natural resources and sell it back to them at increased prices. That's call

> The ideological part is about expanding global markets so US interests can extract natural resources and sell it back to them at increased prices. That's called imperialism, but it's also a kind of war profiteering (if you win). WRT the Korean and Vietnam wars: the market aspect, while present in spirit, was at a few removes, as those particular countries didn't have, at the time, markets significant enough to warrant the intervention. The dot connecting those wars to the market motive was the Domino Theory[0], so in a way those wars were about preserving the option to expand the global market in the future rather than allow the Soviet bloc to expand and dictate those boundaries. IOW, the rationale was effectively "stop them over there now so we don't have to stop them here later". In hindsight, allowing the Soviet bloc to bite off (even) more than they could digest might have resulted in an earlier collapse than 1991. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domino_theory https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domino_theory