[Jim W N]

we were basically building the whole world back up at that time

That is revisionist history.

We saved the world from Hitler's Germany in WWII, but America was still essentially a freedom-loving Christian nation with no interest is controlling the world. Japan is a good example. After helping them recover, we left them alone.

[dfwgator]

I’m purely talking economics. We supplied the world with goods, while the bombed out countries were slowly rebuilding their industries. Of course the US was doing very well then.

[Angelino97]

Japan is a good example. After helping them recover, we left them alone.

Well, we imposed a Constitution on them. And we still have 24 military bases in Japan.