ABSTRACT
Even before the United States formally entered World War II, American leaders began making plans for the creation of a peaceful and prosperous international order after hostilities ceased. American leaders realized that Great Britain would no longer be able to rule the world in the interest of free trade, and they believed that the United States should be prepared to fill the power vacuum. American policymakers rejected the option of centralized economic planning to create an internal balance between supply and demand because they believed that excessive governmental controls would destroy the essentials of free enterprise. Many nationalists, noncommunist as well as communist, were talking about the need for a united Asian crusade to end European rule in the Far East. American diplomats feared that such a pan-Asiatic movement would threaten the economic interests of the United States along with the other industrial countries around the world.
