If the United States couldn’t—or wouldn’t—forge an empire to fight the Soviets, then the Americans needed allies that were sufficiently numerous to make a difference, sufficiently proximate to the Soviet border to mitigate America’s distance, sufficiently skilled in land-based warfare to compensate for America’s naval and amphibious nature, sufficiently wealthy to pay for their own defense, and sufficiently motivated by their own independence to bleed for it should fighting be required.
