Bretton Woods was not a traditional military alliance. In order to combat the Soviets, the Americans had used their dominance of the oceans and superior economic geography to purchase an alliance. The United States enabled global trade and provided a bottomless market for alliance members’ exports. Without a foe, the Bretton Woods alliance lost its reason to be. Why expect the Americans to continue paying for an alliance when the war was over? It would be like continuing to make mortgage payments even after your house is paid for.
