University of Virginia Library

U.S. Has Exercised Leadership

The devastation and
dramatic political collapse of
Europe, as well as the seeming
clarity of the Soviet threat,
meant that to an extraordinary
degree the United States could
indeed ignore problems of
historical and political diversity
after World War II and treat
Western Europe as a whole and
the external threat as a unity.
In effect, the problems of
reconstruction and
containment could be defined
largely in technical terms.
Reconstruction of shattered
but still viable economic and
political systems, as well as
defense against an explicit,
unambiguous external threat,
provided perfect challenges to
American will and American
wealth.

(To be continued Monday)