There are approximately 800 military facilities owned by the USA around the world. These military facilities are there to control world affairs so that the USA can hold on to its superpower status forever.
The pillars of the USA's superpower status are:
- The United States Dollar as a reserve (66% of the world's reserve currency is maintained in the USD) and international trade currency (88% of the world's trade is done in the USD).
- The ally community (e.g. GCC, EU, G7, NATO, 5-eyes, ANZUS, etc).
- The Petro-dollar system and the petro-dollar recycling system.
- The economy of the USA (roughly 23% of the world GDP), and the US-based world banking and financial system (Wall Street, federal reserve system, and SWIFT).
- The US tech industry and giant corporations (China has become a titanic challenge in this regard).
If anyone challenges one or more of the five items above, the USA can retaliate in one or more of the following ways:
- direct invasion e.g. Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.
- indirect invasion e.g. Libya, Syria, etc.
- toppling the governments by using local stooges e.g. Iran, Chile, Sudan, etc.
- economic sanctions e.g. Cuba, Iran, NK, etc.
- Proxy war e.g. Ukraine, etc.
- trade war e.g. China, etc.
In order to do the above, the USA needs an enormous military.

Did Vietnam threaten the position of the USD in international trade?
No. Vietnam was ideological warfare between capitalism and communism.
Did Libya threaten the position of the US tech industry?
No. However, (1) Libya had a nuclear weapons program; (2) Libyan leader Gaddafi was a staunch activist of pan-African currency, and stopped receiving the USD for its oil around 2008; (3) Libya was a model of defying the USA's rules-based international order, and was still a very successful welfare state.
Does the US Navy impose trade bans on China?
No. However, the US government can surveil the sea trade route of China and potentially block it by using its navy during any tense situation.
Probably some parts of the answer could be salvaged by a more oil-specific focus.
I already talked about the petro-dollar system and petro-dollar recycling system.