By Mike Nelson,Noah Hickey

Copyright thedispatch

The world order this strategy would undermine is one the United States has largely grown accustomed to, and potentially taken for granted. In the aftermath of World War II, the United States invested billions through the Marshall Plan to rebuild, unify, and bolster like-minded democracies in Western Europe to counter oppression and deter aggression from the Soviet Union. During this time, American wealth, prosperity, and power all flourished, leading to the collapse of the USSR after it failed to compete with U.S. cultural and economic dominance. In other words, this sizable investment in Marshall Plan dollars paid off not only by creating a global system that made Americans richer but also by avoiding the cost in blood and treasure of a war with Russia. Since the end of the Cold War, the United States has been the undisputed global power—economically, militarily, diplomatically, and culturally.