America was paralyzed with debt, its export earnings had vanished, its people were tragically undereducated, underprotected and unhealthy compared with other wealthy countries, it was being creamed by fast-growing economies abroad (Russia, then Japan, then Europe), its faltering currency was losing ground to stronger rivals, it was losing wars, its culture was shallow, its military spending and foreign obligations were about to push it into the bankruptcy and decline of “imperial overstretch,” as historian Paul Kennedy described it in his 1987 book The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, which predicted a collapse of U.S. influence.
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