Instead of having to fight for food or oil, everyone gained trade access global in scope. Instead of having to fight off empires, everyone gained local autonomy and safety. Compared to the thirteen millennia of history to this point, it was a pretty good deal. And it worked. Really well. In a “mere” forty-five years the Bretton Woods system succeeded in not just containing the Soviet Union, but in choking it to death. The Bretton Woods system generated the longest and deepest period of economic growth and stability in human history.
