Presenting the American Case.

holding rather closely the knowledge that this decline has been going on for quite a long while, and that it commenced for reasons having nothing to do with the events or the political leaders of the third quarter of the twentieth century. American prestige in the world reached its height in 191 9 with the founding of the League of Nations and the extraordinary position of Woodrow Wilson, who for a moment seemed to embody, and in that sense to unify, the hopes of the peoples of the "civilized" world. The moment did not last long, owing in part to a failure of men and institutions in the United States itself. We were not prepared to make the commitment that would have made possible some practical consequences of this extraordinary, if unfocused and fleeting, consensus. It is a sorrowful enough memory, and there is no use to dwell upon it overmuch, but it is useful at this time for at least some person to be clear about what influence means to a nation: it means that other nations want to be like you.