ABSTRACT
The collapse of communist regimes in 1989–91 and the consequent end of the Cold War found the world in a situation and mood far different from that which had existed at the end of World War II. Then the United States was confident and strong at home and abroad. It was experiencing the institutional and psychological momentum of leadership in a situation where every other nation was much weaker. All other leading countries had suffered severe war damage. The United States had experienced no fighting or war damage on its own soil except for the losses at Pearl Harbor. The American economy had grown rapidly and was by war’s end generating perhaps 40 percent of world output.
