'I believe in the American creed (and the Soviet Union)'

“White belonged to a generation of Russophile writers and public officials who had come of age intellectually between the two world wars, a period marked by political upheaval, the Great Depression, and the collapse of the international trade and monetary systems. The whole world order seemed to be in flux. To many observers, radical social, economic, and political change were inevitable. To some, the upheaval was also a call to action -- inside and outside the traditional confines of national politics.” – Benn Steil, “Red White: Why a Founding Father of Postwar Capitalism Spied for the Soviets.”

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/138847/benn-steil/red-white?page=show

(Vietnam shadows much of American foreign policy, but the Great Depression has even more influence on both foreign and internal plans. Capitalism, socialism, communism, death-bed imperialism – Each is a large-scale product of the great global game, each is a figure on the board, at times in struggle, at other times in cooperation with figures occupying adjacent or nearby squares. Just as the world had never before faced wartime slaughter as produced by the World War, so in the economic collapse of 1929 the world’s peoples faced starvation and a dark future. Each ism seemingly offered a way to security, but that security lay in beating a bloody path through someone else’s economic, political and geographical residence. We whose parents came of age during the Great Depression were told stories of want and of fear, and remembrances of those stories affect political decisions today. The world will be much better off when people place those tales on shelves, along with stories of barbarians used to keep children mindful of parental discipline.)