ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of the Woodrow Wilson presidency and its building-bloc foundations; the Great Depression in the 1930s, Franklin Delano Roosevelt's response in particular, and how that experience influenced post-World War II policies and domestic economic parameters; and the global shifts wrought by World War II. A pullback from Wilsonian principles occurred, but during the Wilson administration tariff reduction and a progressive income had been implemented, while the idea of a League of Nations in which the United States would take a major leadership role was planted. These policies and ideas formed the cornerstone of the post-World War II Soviet containment strategy. The economic building blocs that the United States used to create and shape global development to contain the Soviet Union did not instantaneously develop after World War II. World War II ended with the United States an economic and military power while Western Europe was devastated.
