America isolationist

[Straha]

What kind of event, short of a natural catastrophe, would have to happen to drive the US back into total isolationism in the diplomatic and military sense?

how do we get this in the late 20th century??

[MerryPrankster]

Well, NATO could be dissolved in the aftermath of the collapse of the USSR. That wouldn't make the US *totally* isolationist, but it would be much less involved abroad military.

Somalia, should the crisis occur as OTL, gets farmed out to Britain and/or South Africa to handle.

[Adam Parsons]

Okay, I mentioned this on another thread, but it's still relevant here.

For my (borrowed) idea, Kennedy lives past 1963. He's reelected in '64, and follows Vietnam on pretty much the same course as Johnson did in OTL. However, with his ambivalence towards civil rights, and the need to gain the support of the southern governors, leads to the Civil Rights Amendment dying in commitee. This state of affairs trundles on until '72, when "black power" riots start up in several major cities. Add to that a depression caused by the oil crisis in '73, and the post-Vietnam cynicism in America, and civil disorder spreads throughout American society. By 1980, most Americans feel that they should send the troops home, and the US begins pulling its forces out of Europe and East Asia. The Europeans scramble to rebuild their defenses and complain about a "stab in the back", and the USSR uses the breathing space to embark on some much-needed reforms. The USA ends the unrest and finally passes civil rights by 1989, but at that time, the Americans aren't terribly interested in the world that has abandoned them, and the Europeans are still mad about the withdrawal, leaving the reformed USSR the greatest power in the world.

Comments? I would especially like some feedback, as I have some future plans for this idea.