It's time again for "When did the USA cease being a Republic and instead an Empire?"

[Uncle Joe]

5. It may have been planned that way from the beginning.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire

Characterizing some aspects of American foreign policy and international behavior "American Empire" is controversial but not uncommon. Stuart Creighton Miller posits that the public's sense of innocence about Realpolitik (cf. American Exceptionalism) impairs popular recognition of US imperial conduct. Since it governed other countries via surrogates — domestically-weak, right-wing governments that collapse without US support.[15] G.W. Bush's Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said: "We don't seek empires. We're not imperialistic; we never have been"[16] — directly contradicts Thomas Jefferson, in the 1780s, awaiting the fall of the Spanish empire: "...till our population can be sufficiently advanced to gain it from them piece by piece".[17][18][19] In turn, historian Sidney Lens argues that from its inception the US has used every means to dominate other nations.[20]

Thanks for the thread, Taverner.