[AndyJackson]

Germany had a terrible unemployment rate in 1932 and suffered from the treaty of Versailles

There are lots of post WWI villains, including Wilson, the French and the English. There is a very good argument to be made that Stalin had a great deal to do with the mess as well.

[Atlantic Bridge]

Wilson did not want to have the excessive reparations of Versailles that especially the French enforced. He wanted to be generous and the Frenchmen were the ones who had to pay the most tragic price for not being generous.

The US always followed a policy of generosity since it was the most intelligent thing to do. The Marshall plan i.e. paid out a thousand times and provided peace and happiness for a long time. The legacy of this generosity lives on since Europeans like me still identify the US with being something "good". :)