America under Trump reaches another birthday – but who’s celebrating?

It wasn’t so long ago that John Kennedy uttered these words, but whether they still convey the same meaning is open to doubt. It was these words that prompted me to look to the United States for my education. They also led to the decision of my whole family to migrate to the US for good, though I myself have since returned. America then was a country built on dreams. Pursue the American dream and it would lead you to the promised land. I really believed it then.
After graduating with doctoral degrees at the University of Nebraska, my Taiwanese friend and I took teaching jobs there. I stayed for two years, but he never left. I was with him when he took his oath of allegiance to become an American citizen. “This, more than anything,” he told me, “is the proudest moment of my life!” 
Whether he still feels the same now, I do not know.
For sure, under Donald J Trump, this is not the America I used to know and admire. Americans were, and still are, the only people who will sacrifice their own lives for other peoples. The graves of American soldiers, from the steep hills in Europe to the deep jungle of Southeast Asia and beyond, surround the globe. 
But the world is different now. From the mother of democracy, America has transformed itself into a big bully whose main interests are not the protection of freedom for other peoples, but ones completely dominated by aggrandised economic and commercial pursuits. “You must obey me or you’re against me” – this seems to be the order of the day in the conduct of American foreign policy everywhere. 
Even sadder is the undeniable fact that America has always succeeded in turning true friends into true enemies. 
I would hate to think that very soon Thailand will be forced to side with another emerging power in Asia, to counter the “American menace”. For once we do that there is no turning back.
I would like to hope that that this July 4 brings some sense back to America and the minds of its leaders. I would like to remember the America of John Kennedy. Every country follows its own destiny, both good and bad. The dictation of that destiny cannot come from outside. It must come from the people of that country and America must learn to accept the dictum that might does not always make right.
Prachyadavi Tavedikul