There is a jaw dropping line in an article today- "President Barack Obama and his Republican allies"

[pampango]

139. So FDR and Truman were short-sighted and could not imagine a future world where Europe and Asia

had recovered from the war and would have a renewed manufacturing base? They did not foresee that Europe and Asia would not then use the 'push for trade' against us? I suspect they were not that clueless but were committed to international engagement and cooperation as evidenced by all the multinational organizations that were created under their leadership.

Or maybe FDR and Truman were devious at heart and secretly planned to 'push for trade' for a decade or two while we were the 'manufacturer of the world', then when Europe and Asia recovered, perhaps they figured their successors would reverse their trade policy and announce "The US is now out of the ITO we created. Here are the new trade rules we have come up with unilaterally. Hope you like them but if you don't, we really don't care. We are bigger and stronger than you. Thanks for playing the game."

Actually, FDR and Truman were really following in Democratic tradition of 'freer' and more trade and lower tariffs which had existed since the end of the Civil War and culminated in Woodrow Wilson's "mini-globalization" before WWI and his attempt at 'freer' trade and a League of Nations after WWI - both of which the republican senate shot down.

If Herbert Hoover or a similar republican successor (they believed in a high-tariff policy back in the day) had led us through WWII, they would have stayed true to their convictions after the war that high tariffs and little trade "protect" American companies. Of course, FDR and Truman led us through the war and immediate post-war period. All republicans could do was refuse to ratify the International Trade Organization. They could not enact higher tariffs or trade restrictions until Eisenhower became president which they did. But then Kennedy came along and lowered tariffs down again and initiated the Kennedy round of negotiations at GATT to increase trade and help developing countries.