The Rise of the American System - Liberal Leviathan: The Origins, Crisis, and Transformation of the American World Order - page 120

brought together economic, ideological, and geopolitical strands of thinking among Americ-
an policy makers. 16 A postwar effort to reopen the world economy united various groups of
strategists and policy makers in the Roosevelt and Truman administrations. One group of of-
ficials that embraced the logic of open markets as the organizing idea of postwar order were
the wartime free traders in the State Department, led by Secretary Cordell Hull. Hull and his
colleagues embraced economic interdependence, led by the United States, as the only way
to ensure prosperity and stable peace. As Hull said in a speech in November 1938: “I know
that without expansion of international trade, based upon fair dealing and equal treatment for
all, there can be no stability and security either within or among nations. . . . I know that the
withdrawal by a nation from orderly trade relations with the rest of the world inevitably leads
to regimentation of all phases of national life, to the suppression of human rights, and all too
frequently to preparations for war and a provocative attitude toward other nations.” 17 Hull's
emphasis was less on free trade, as such, than on nondiscrimination and equal commercial
opportunity. Open markets, according to this widely shared American view, would simultan-
eously advance two objectives. They would ensure that the United States would have access
to markets and raw materials around the world, a goal that Washington officials had pur-
sued since the Open Door policies of the turn of the century, and also contribute to economic
growth and interdependence, in turn creating shared interests among countries in a peaceful
international order. As Assistant Secretary of State Dean Acheson argued in April 1945, there
was “wide recognition that peace is possible only if countries work together and prosper to-
gether. That is why the economic aspects are no less important than the political aspects of
peace.” 18
Another group supporting open markets after the war were strategic planners inside and
outside of government. Starting in the 1930s, these thinkers questioned whether the United
States could remain as a great industrial power within the confines of the Western Hemi-
sphere. In one important planning exercise during the war, experts studied what was de-
scribed as the Grand Area—that is, the geographical zone that the United States would need
to have access to and some control over in a way that would allow it remain a global power.
The War and Peace Study Group—a gathering of economists and political specialists con-
vened by the Council on Foreign Relations—debated what sort of postwar international sys-
tem would best meet America's growing economic and strategic interests. As the work pro-
ceeded, it became increasingly clear to the group that “the only area sufficiently large was the
one equivalent to the world economy as a whole and driven by the United States. The coming
to this awareness was gradual, proceeding through a series of thresholds.” 19 An American
hemispheric bloc would not be sufficient: the United States must have security of markets
and raw materials in Asia and Europe. 20 In effect, America's Grand Area would need to be
the entire world—or at least its major regions. If the rim lands of Europe and Asia became
dominated by one or several hostile imperial powers, the security implications for the United