Their objective of a prosperous, peaceful and interdependent world clearly painted out at the horizon, Hoover and Hughes now set about to devise the road that would bring them there.

   From their understanding of history and the recent experiences of war it soon became clear that to get politicians talking about the economy, they first had to be re-assured of their security (Americans still considered themselves quite safe sur- rounded by the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans). To ensure national security, many countries deemed arms build-up to be the most effective measure. But an arma- ments race diverted attention and money from the issue of building a prosperous world economy. The primary goal of ‘American individualism’ thus had to be to stop the ruinous military competition and set international security and peace on
a new basis.[188]

   Once the military issues were put aside, Hoover and Hughes - and from 1929 on Henry L. Stimson - could begin shaping their global economic paradise, American version. They had in mind an enlarged, global Open-Door Policy to come to this end. The apparently limitless American capital - the U.S. had just been transformed from the world’s greatest debtor nation into the world’s greatest creditor nation - was to flow into every corner of the world. There it was supposed to help develop markets fit to buy American products and to produce themselves needed goods and resources. But ‘American individualism’ did not stop at this point. It was also to create the social and political  conditions for a successful cooperation between the United States and the world. Especially those societies like the German one that were threatened by communist revolution should be reformed into stable, liberal and market-economy democracies that could become active American partners in achieving the common goal.[189]

   Again, the approach was quite idealistic, although more realistic than Wilson’s missionary zeal since now the focus was on the material interest of people. But that America did not employ its military power, only wanted to lead the economic deve- lopment of the world, did not necessarily mean others would act accordingly.