Political thought in the United States certainly bears out the truth of the observation that infancy impressions are the determining factor of a nation's as well as of an individual's outlook. Americans had to wrest their independence from an imperialistic British government headed by a king. This became the source of three indelible notions: first, crowns are all suspect; secondly, imperialism is something specifically British; thirdly, since British foreign policy has been imperialistic, its methods stand condemned, and one of them is known as the balance-of-power. Conclusion: away with that balance!

So it happened that the second half of the twentieth century had to dawn before American statesmen and generals realized and proclaimed the necessity of the balance-of-power and before the American public was ready to be told so. On May 29, 1951, there occurred a significant exchange in the Senate inquiry on the MacArthur ouster.