Empire is an emotionally and historically charged term. However, its usage throughout time to describe states' and peoples' behavior towards others is a display of the vitality in the term's etymological construction. Today, the United States must reexamine itself through a historically grounded imperial lens in order to create more beneficial set of policies; by refining its strengths and reforming its weaknesses; both at home and abroad. Presidential leaders and foreign policies, defined by military and ideological power in recent times have both enhanced and bucked a possible imperial American existence. Nonetheless, an imperial assessment of past and future decisions may show Americans their proximity to empire, and may provoke new elements of thought in the American psyche and practices in American politics.