In 1940, Adolph Berle, the undersecretary in the U.S. Department State, penned a prescient passage in his diary. “I have been saying to myself and other people, that the only possible effect of this war would be that the United States would emerge with an imperial power greater than the world had ever seen.” It is unclear what Berle meant exactly by “imperial power.” Most likely, he meant it as the founders of the American Revolution had meant it – that is, sovereign strength or greatness. If so, Berle's statement was on the spot. The United States did emerge from World War II as the world's leading economic and military power. In 1950, its GDP was higher than all of Europe's put together and near equal to Europe's and Russia's combined. The United States was the world's leading exporter and foreign investor. Its financial and industrial strength was matched by its agricultural exports. The United States was “the workshop, bakery, and banker of the world.”